Biography

Multifaceted artist, he is the father of Timna Brauer and of Ruth Brauer-Kvam.

In the 1990s, Brauer turned to architecture, with projects in Austria and Israel. The facades and interiors of his buildings are covered with fantastical mosaics, murals, and painted tiles. He designed the Arik-Brauer-Haus in Gumpendorferstraße, Vienna, completed in 1993, the Catholic Pfarre am Tabor in Vienna in 1996, the Voitsberg town hall and the Kastra shopping mall in Haifa. The facade of Kastra features his Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the largest mural of its kind in the world.

On the occasion of his 90th birthday, his daughter Ruth Brauer-Kvam wrote a play about his life, -Arik. Die wunderbar realistische Welt des phantastischen Herrn Brauer- , for which he designed the stage sets. She sang and recited from his texts and memories.

Called an Universalkünstler (all-round artist) in Austria, he appeared as a singer-songwriter at the beginning of Austropop in the 1970s, taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1985, and designed buildings in Austria and Israel in the 1990s.

In the 1970s, Brauer was focused on singing. He wrote and performed songs in dialect such as "Sie ham a Haus baut" and "Hinter meiner, vorder meiner" which were meant as critical texts, but were recognised as early contributions to the new genre Austropop (pop music in Austrian dialect).