Maître Leherb
The paintings by the artist in the entrance hall
Maître Leherb spent twelve years working on his “imaginary portraits” of the continents for what was then the new and is now the old campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU).
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The continents were chosen as the central theme because similar images had previously adorned the walls of the former WU building near Währinger Park.
The fact that it took Leherb twelve years to complete the work was due to both technical and health-related reasons. On the one hand, producing six majolica panels measuring 8×8 meters each and composed of 506 tiles apiece is an extremely complex task.1 On the other hand, working with toxic color pigments severely damaged Leherb’s health.2 Between 1987 and 1989, he had to pause his work due to the harm caused by exposure to manganese and cobalt.3
The Federal Real Estate Company BIG maintains that it is seeking an alternative exhibition space for the faience works. If this is not successful, the artworks are to be dismantled and archived. This would render them inaccessible to art enthusiasts for the time being. The Allianz Alte WU sees not only valuable embodied energy (so-called “grey energy”) in the existing building, but also the ideal exhibition space for Maître Leherb’s faience panels at risk. The works, considered the largest faience pieces of the 20th century and widely praised in Faenza, Italy, can be regarded as Leherb’s masterpiece. Taking into account the serious health damage the artist endured during their creation, concerns about their appropriate presentation and accessibility are reasonable.
Text and photo: Nicolas Etemad – Allianz alte WU
1 Leherb.org (2019). Maitre Leherb. https://www.leherb.org/ retrieved on 12.06.2025.
2 Schmale, Wolfgang. (2018). Maître Leherb: Kontinentbilder in der ehemaligen Wirtschaftsuniversität in Wien. https://wolfgangschmale.eu/maitre-leherb/#_ftn3 retrieved on 12.06.2025.
3 Leherb.org (2019).