He was already enjoying great success in New York in 1960. Clement Greenberg, one of the most influential US art critics, considered Hollegha to be on a par with the protagonists of Abstract Expressionism. He exhibited in the US alongside Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland.

Despite this international recognition, the youngest Austrian winner of the Guggenheim Award and participant in documenta III decided against a career in the art metropolises: in 1962, Hollegha purchased a 17th-century farmhouse on the Rechberg north of Graz and built himself a studio there entirely according to his own ideas. In this seclusion, he developed his colorful, often monumental work over six decades, which can be discovered at the Museum Reinhard Ernst starting in March.

The Reinhard Ernst Collection also offers a touching reunion with Hollegha's companions.
 
An exhibition by the Reinhard Ernst Museum in collaboration with the Neue Galerie Graz/Universalmuseum Joanneum.