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After completing public school, Zdrazila completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter. In 1893 he went to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels and William Unger. From 1894 he attended the special class for landscape painting at Lichtenfels. From Vienna he went on study trips to the surrounding area and to the Austrian Alps, where he painted in nature. He was supported by a scholarship from some Viennese painters. Because of his academic achievements, Zdrazila was awarded the Gundel Prize in 1896 and the Rosenbaum Prize in 1897/98; He also received the Silesian state scholarship and the so-called Koch scholarship. While still studying in 1895, he married Rosalia Tatzel. When he received a state travel grant for one year in 1898, he left Vienna to continue his studies in Munich and then in Karlsruhe at the Grand Ducal Baden Art Academy, where he became a student of Gustav Schönleber, Leopold von Kalckreuth and Friedrich Kallmorgen. Zdrazila went on study trips to Paris, Brussels and the Netherlands and visited the Worpswede artists' colony. In 1899 he returned to Troppau. He became a member of the Vienna Art Association and the Vienna Secession and made contact with the architect Leopold Bauer. In 1902 he went to Berg near Böheimkirchen, where, together with his friends Josef Jungwirth and Franz Schuster, he founded an artists' colony based on the Worpswede model. Zdrazila spent two years in the colony. He also stayed in Kirchweg in Lower Austria several times with his family. In addition to stays in Vienna, Adolf Zdrazila also spent some time in Munich and became a member of the Munich Secession there. In 1904 he finally settled in Troppau. Here he maintained an intensive collaboration with Edmund Wilhelm Braun, the director of the Troppau Decorative Arts Museum, particularly as part of a project to preserve Silesian culture. Zdrazila also led drawing and painting courses as well as a course in graphic techniques at the Silesian State Museum from 1905 to 1908. His most important students during this time in Troppau included Valentin Držkovic, Helmut Krommer, Leo Haas, Egon Josef Kossuth, and Eduard Balzer as well as Toni Prunner and Helli Neudeck. In addition, a graphic cycle “Sleeping Beauty” and numerous graphic works for the museum were created during this time, e.g. B. Colored woodcuts for arts and crafts exhibitors, a diploma for Archbishop Georg von Kopp, a graphic sheet for the anniversary of the Troppau choir (1902) and an art advertising poster for the city of Troppau. As a music lover, Zdrazila became a member of the “Silesian Symphony” association, built a small home organ and made numerous connections with contemporary Silesian artists, e.g. B. to the musician Ludwig Grande and the writer Viktor Heeger. In 1917 Zdrazila was called up as a one-year volunteer for the Militia Infantry Regiment No. 15 in Troppau. In 1918 he was a member of the war press department's artist group and worked as a war painter. The war took him to Italy, Serbia and Russia. In 1919 Zdrazila became the founder and long-time chairman of the Association of Fine Artists of Silesia in Troppau - Association of Painters of Silesia, which was based in Troppau and included painters such as Richard Assmann, Helmut Krommer, Raimund Mosler, Fritz Kruspersky, Leo Haas, Ida Fauster, Helli Neudeck and others. After returning to Opava in 1904, Zdrazila was involved in the decoration of numerous buildings in the city, e.g. B. when painting the chapel, the refectory and the dormitory of the Silesian State Institute for the Mentally Ill. In 1909 he also designed the interior for the exhibition pavilion in the city garden. Here he met the architect Leopold Bauer, with whom he worked closely in the following years. In 1909 he designed the colored glass windows for the meeting room of the then Chamber of Commerce building in Troppau, which was built according to Bauer's design. This collaboration continued from 1911 to 1913 at the parish church of St. Nicholas in Bielsko-Biala and from 1913 to 1915 at the church of St. Martin in Taschendorf (Tošovice) near Fulnek. In 1914 Zdrazila reconstructed the frescoes in St. Wenceslas Church in Opava. Zdrazila's work for the city of Freudenthal (Bruntál) dates back to 1926. This year he decorated the chapel of the Archbishop's Petrinum Boys' Seminary here and two years later he created the murals behind the main altar of the Piarist Church of Our Lady of Consolation. Between 1928 and 1930 he participated in the decoration of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy. The mural painting for the Trinity Church in Troppau was also realized during this time. Between 1933 and 1935 Zdrazil took part in the decoration of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in Skrochovice near Opava. The cooperation with Leopold Bauer continued from 1933 to 1938 in the construction of the Church of St. Hedwig in Troppau, where Zdrazila created an altarpiece and designed the fresco designs for the side altars and the facade decoration of the church. Zdrazila is assessed as a representative of local art. In his work, which has been widely exhibited in Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia, landscape painting dominates over portraiture, still life and sacred painting. In addition to a considerable number of oil paintings, gouaches and watercolors, he created a large number of graphic works, mainly woodcuts in color and black and white, etchings and engravings. His views of the towns, villages and buildings in the Troppau and Freiwaldau region often document buildings that no longer exist.
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