Attersee was born as Christian Ludwig in Preßburg in 1940. Attersee spent his youth in Aschach on the Danube, in Linz and and on Lake Atter (Attersee). Active and prominent in sailing in Austria, he won numerous international regattas, assuming the nom d'artiste Attersee. Wind and weather have remained major themes in the work of this versatile artist to this day. He launched his career in 1951 at the tender age of eleven by writing novels and songs and designing stage scenery. Attersee's formal education in art began in 1957, when he began to study stage design at the Vienna Academy of Applied Art, followed by studies in painting, which he successfully finished in 1963. The mid-1960s saw the invention of such playful Attersee objects as 'Speisekugel' ['Food Sphere'] and 'Speiseblau' ['Food Blue'] and the 'Attersteck' ['Attercutlery']. Attersee began to reproduce these object inventions on canvas and in coloured drawings, accompanied by Object Actions at galleris, on stage and in TV films. Attersee forged friendships with Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Walter Pichler, Dieter Roth, Dominik Steiger and Oswald Viennaer, with whom he occasionally collaborates. In 1971-72 Attersee had a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) grant to Berlin, where he did the 'Segelsport' ['Sailing Sport'] cycle. Attersee is one of Austria's most versatile artists. Apart from painting, he performs music in public, is a writer, object maker and designer, produces films and designs stage scenery. Attersee's has participated in numerous important international exhibitions, including documenta VI in Kassel (1977) and the 1984 Venice Biennale, where he designed the Austrian and the first international pavilion. During the 1980s Attersee's 'Attersee Werksquer' ['Cross-Section of Attersee's Work'] was shown at numerous museums and art venues throughout Austria and Germany. In 1990 Attersee was appointed professor extraordinary at the Vienna Academy of Applied Art, where he taught the master class in experimental design, and in 1992 he was appointed professor for the master class in painting, film animation and tapestry design. Retrospectives of Attersee's work have been held at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague (1993) and at the Grafische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna (1997). Attersee lives and works at St. Martin on the Raab in the Burgenland, at Semmering and in Vienna.