Heinz Cibulka, from the series »Hochgebirgsquartette«, 1984

On the Death of Heinz Cibulka
1943−2026

As his wife, Magdalena Frey, reports, Heinz Cibulka died on 14 August 2026 at his home in Ladendorf, surrounded by his family. The renowned photographic artist was born in Vienna in 1943 and had largely withdrawn from public life in recent years due to illness.

Heinz Cibulka trained as a graphic artist at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna, where he came into contact with Viennese Actionism. He participated as a model in numerous actions and, through this intense exploration of human nature and its embeddedness in the social fabric, developed a distinctive photographic language of his own. With his “Rejection of the Single Image” (the title of an exhibition at Museum Folkwang in 1980) and his combination of four individual photographs into a single composition—the “image poems”—he revolutionised the photographic scene in the 1970s. His oeuvre also encompasses performances, material works incorporating natural materials, and literary texts. His wide-ranging artistic work since 1972 has been documented in numerous publications and photographic art exhibitions. Among other honours, he received the “Rupertinum Photography Prize” in Salzburg, the “Lower Austrian State Prize for Photography,” the “Austrian Recognition Prize for Photography,” and the “Sebetia ter” Prize in Naples.