Suzanne Wenger, (b. Austria, 1915 - 2009) Oil on wood 61 x 92cm (24 x 36.25in)Framed Susanne Wenger,

Suzanne Wenger, (b. Austria, 1915 - 2009) Oil on wood 61 x 92cm (24 x 36.25in)

Framed

Susanne Wenger, born in 1915 in Graz, Austria, was an active founding member of the Vienna Art-Club in 1947. This and sixty years of art and life in Africa have earned her a world wide reputation as an accomplished artist with a personality to match. She was the subject of many TV-programmes and despite some colourful articles in various magazines reporting "a white goddess on a river in deepest Africa” – Susanne Wenger was first and foremost one of the most important modern Artists in post 1945 Austria. Because of her position as an outsider (both to the Nigerians as well as the Europeans) the view of her artistic achievements was sometimes obscured by exotic and misleading media reports.

During the nights of Vienna`s bombardment in 1943-44, she was the first Austrian artist to draw surreal paintings, which in turn had a great influence on the young Viennese generation of artists after the war (Fuchs, Brauer, Lehmden, Bertoni, etc.) Her rebellion against the Nazi terror was well documented in the exhibition "Moderne in dunkler Zeit” (Modern art in dark times) at the "Neue Galerie Graz” in 2001.

After a brief stay in Paris in 1949, where she met and married Ulli Beier (at the time a teacher for handicapped children in London and who had just accepted a posting at the University of Ibadan) she arrived in West Africa in 1950. As a result of the great Art-Club exhibitions, Wenger was already an established artist by this time. From 1954 she had exhibitions in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Breda.

"Susanne Wenger and Ulli Beier first lived in Ibadan, then moved to Epe and finally to Oshgobo in 1960. This is where she immersed herself into Yoruba poetry, mythology and religion and was initiated as a priestess without ever forsaking her existence as a modern artist. From this time she dedicated her efforts to the restoration and re-creation of derelict shrines of the Yoruba religion and did not have any further exhibitions for 25 years.”

Source: Wolfgang Denk, English version by Gusti Merzeder-Taylor, The Susanne Wenger Foundation. Acquired direct from the artist Private collection of Rolf Crüsemann-Brockmann, Germany Click here to view Catalogue