Early Life and Artistic Training Valentin Oman entered the world on December 14, 1935, in the village of Sankt Stefan bei Villach. His early years were shaped by the landscape of his birth, a setting that would later inform the depth of his visual language. As a young man, he sought the discipline of formal study, moving toward the great centers of learning to refine his innate sensibilities. He arrived in Vienna, where he spent the years between 1958 and 1962 at the University of Applied Arts. It was within these walls that he joined the master class for painting, studying under the guidanc…