Location: Austria
Born in 1943 in Vienna, Brigitte Thonhauser-Merk was fascinated by cubism and abstraction that she came to know during her first stay in France in 1957. As an auto-didact she won the first prize in 1962 in a competition organized in the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, accompanied with an invitation to participate in an exhibition at the Vienna Secession. After a pause of 30 years due to familiy reasons, she started a career as a painter with enthousiasm, taking painting lessons at the Vienna fine-art public school (Künstlerische Volkshochschule Lazarettgasse) and organizing exhibitions in Austria, France, Italy and Germany. Her work shows a great variety of styles: flowers in watercolour, gardens in oil, abstract compositions and phantastic landscapes in acrylic on canvas and grafics. She is a member of Artistes Indépendants and Arts-Sciences-Lettres in
Paris where her paintings are regularly on display. Among several other awards, she received in France "La toile d'or" (golden canvas) of the Fédération Nationale de la Culture Francaise 2006 and 2010 and the golden medal of the Mérite Culturel Francais 2013. Her paintings appear in french art magazines like "Impressions d'artistes" and "La Gazette des Arts" and show her joy and love for life that she wants to transmit to the spectator. As for Delacroix, her credo is: "above all, a painting should be a feast
for the eyes"....
Her abstract paintings can be understood as visions between reality and fantasy, whereby the artist invites the spectator to discover always something new. The geometric abstract paintings allow his eye to rest and allow the artwork to somehow speak to him. In the pouring paintings one can feel the power that comes from the introduction of air into the paint including haphazard effects. It is as if the spirit would enter into the material world to make something vivid out of it. In any case the harmony of colours and composition is an important sign of the artist.
The colours of a small lake within the island of Mljet in Coatia inspired the artist to this painting.
In Cyprus, the artist discovered many places where the souvenir of the greek godess Aphrodite was still celebrated in many ways. She started playing with the shapes and colours that she found. By mixing all of her impressions together with colours of pink and blackberry appropriate to this subject, she created a geometric and harmonious painting of nearly exotic beauty.
An exhibition of Poljakov's paintings in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris inspired the artist to create an abstract painting by playing with some of the typical shapes used by the russian artist thus creating something new mixed with her own fantasy.
This dutch pouring painting invites the spectator to discover a hidden head of a lion which can be seen only from one particular point of view. The use of gold with black and white underlines the elegance of a royal setting.
This painting has been created by using a spatula to draw playfully some layers of pink, golden and white paint over the black canvas. The result is a beautiful setting that gives room to the spectator for personal interpretations.
This pouring painting has been inspired by the lightness of a fresh and young summerday. The colours are bright, but not too warm, and the shapes are suggesting flower petals or wings of butterflies.
“Malil Jezero”
“Abstract Aphrodite”
“Hommage to Poljakov”
“The lion of Juda”
“Fantasy”
“Beginning of summer”
