WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 5pm – EXHIBIT OPENING/RECEPTION
SIBYLLE-MARIA PFAFFENBICHLER
is showing her works on paper on the theme of Dance and Jazz, using acrylic, charcoal and pastel at the Moonstone Arts Center from March 22 to April 27, 2010.
The Austrian-American artist has been showing extensively in New York City, the Hamptons of Long Island and Vienna, Austria. She has worked on the theme of Dance for the past 10 years. Pfaffenbichler also created many posters for unions through Bread & Roses and charities. She holds a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, NYC The artist now lives and works in Philadelphia. For more information go to her site Mozart and Jazz.
Born and raised in the ancient city of Steyr in Upper Austria I immigrated as teenager to the United States. While my art training started at home with my Father, Josef-Maria Pfaffenbichler, and Austrian art of the 20th century – Klimt and Egon Schiele in particular -, I received my formal education in New York City. Starting out at the ART STUDENTS LEAGUE I moved on to the FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, FIT, State University of New York, graduating with a BACHELOR DEGREE IN FINE ARTS s.c.l. Textile Designer “VERA” hired me out of school and my first professional artistic endeavors were freely painted scarf designs in fresh watercolor for her company in Ossining NY
My path into Fine Art took me through the beautiful Brooklyn Botanical Gardens where NYC artist FRED GUTZEIT instructed “People Painting the Garden”. Later at Long Island University, Advanced Art studies with PROF. ROBERT MUNFORD inspired me to draw bold and fearlessly. I created many spontaneous floral still lifes with the Sunflower as the dominant element. Today my work consists of bold interpretations of music and dance from the early era of JAZZ up to ROCK’N ROLL of the 60’s as well as MOZART’s, aiming for a strong sense of movement. The era of American boogie woogie and rock lit the youth of the world on fire. Underlying it all is the simple theme of the human body in motion.
Growing up in Austria I naturally feel great passion for Classical Music. My summer school vacations were spent in Salzburg, thanks to my Onkel Alois and Tante Mitzi. In other words, I spent my childhood summers with Mozart,a musical experience which still echoes in my endless series of “Mozart in Motion”. And sometimes I get so wrapped up in the exciting music that I fuse it all together. I paint jazz people on top of my old classical sheet music; from “Boogie Woogie on Wagner” to “Rossini Rocks”. My favorite media are charcoaled willow sticks, pastel, oil and acrylic. I had several large solo exhibitions in New York City, the Hamptons of Long Island and Vienna, Austria, recently adding Philadelphia.
The Hamptons of Long Island, New York, where I lived for 20 years, contributed greatly to my technical and intellectual growth – in 1993 I became President of a 300 member artist group – The Southampton Artists. I also was their Chairman for Guest Speakers for 5 years arranging for 50 speakers. Many great American artists live in the Hamptons and generously gave of their time, sharing their philosophy, techniques and life experiences. The one artist who left the fondest impression on me was LARRY RIVERS; the one who inspired me to think outside the box – ROBERT WILSON. One of my most favorite artists is Franz Marc. Over the years my growing conscience for social justice and charity found expression in a number of posters I rendered for labor unions through BREAD AND ROSES Cultural Projects, NYC, and GREENHOUSE Projects, Washington,DC; The Dominican Sisters for Health Care, against Domestic Abuse, and more As of 2009 I live and work in PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania My goal is to create the illusion of movement on a flat surface. Dance and music are my playground. Once the dancing image is in progress I would like to take it beyond where the viewer is continuing the motion by experiencing the sense of completing a turn, anticipating the next step of the boogie, getting caught up in the excitement of the body lifting off the floor…. Dance is sheer joy but dance is also about sensuous feelings of attraction and desires. Movements convey moods, from romantic tenderness to seductive rhythm to ecstasy – All on a flat surface – that’s the quest.
“…She (Pfaffenbichler) pictures the dancers less as objects moved by the music than as physical manifestations of the music itself. It releases the representation of dance in art from the more static artistic visualization of Degas and instead strives for Havelock Ellis’s definition of dance as no mere ‘…abstraction from life: it is life itself.’ ” (Eric Ernst, artist and art critic, grandson of Max Ernst, Southampton Press article ‘Library’s Exhibition puts Jazz on Canvas’, 2/28/2002)
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