About the artist Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg
The art of observing beauty
Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg, who has chosen Austria as his home, says "Painting is like performing magic". Nothing but the inspiration of an instant forms a "Paradise for Eyes".
Perhaps it was the magic of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism that attracted him - his pictures, however, are reminiscent of his German origins. And Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg subscribes to the view of Merlin, the old magician who was also a native of Frankfurt: "If not the eye were like the sun, the sun could never be perceived; if not God's own power in us dwelled,
how could divine things please us?"
His special technique, i.e. painting with coloured pencils and oil colours on a special board, allows meticulous details, as if painted under a magnifying glass, which altogether bring about an exquisitely colourful intensity. The colours' particular luminance stems from the application of several layers, with deeper layers partially being uncovered. That's how his fantastic paradise for the eyes comes into existence.
Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg draws his inspiration from flora and fauna, landscape and architecture, people, nature and mythology.
The Artist
1938 Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg is born in Frankfurt / Main
1952 Choirboy in the church choir in Laubach / Hesse
1957 Completed apprenticeship as industral clerk, customer consultant in an international advertising agency
1965 Emigration to Vienna
Since 1966 freelance painter
1970 birth of his daughter
National and international exhibitions
England, Italy, France, Poland, Germany and Austria
The artist's answers to some curious questions
You were born in 1938... there must have been childhood memories that one has to come to terms with. How did that influence your personality?
WSM: I can remember the war, the escape and poverty. I guess that's where my latent anxiety comes from.
It seems that art has changed your life in various ways. You used to spend a part of your schooldays in Hesse as a choirboy. How did that come about?
WSM: During my days at school I was only interested in art and sports. For the "Musterschule" in Frankfurt I was not well-behaved enough.
What mattered at the choirboys was my musical talent.
Did you also paint as a child or as a teen? When did you first feel the call to paint? Or did you have a role model?
WSM: I have always painted. My passion for painting was definite. Maybe I've inherited the love of painting from my mother. I never had role models. In my youth I would never have dared to think of me as a professional painter. My father made me become an industrial clerk.
You became an industrial clerk, and at the age of 21 years you sold office equipment. After the transition to an international advertising agency, you moved to Vienna for that company, staying only 1 year in the "normal" professional world. What had happened?
WSM: Working and painting simultaneously was simply too much. Back then the time was ripe for a decision, and I had found my true vocation
in life.
Have you ever regretted your deciding in favour of art since 1966?
WSM: No, never.
What would you like to achieve with your pictures? Or do you primarily paint to express the ideas in your mind and only then consider the possible effect?
WSM: I paint to transform ideas into pictures and to radiate joy.
For decades, you have worked almost daily - without weekends, without holidays. Doesn't an artist need vacation for new inspiration?
WSM: Of course an artist needs new inspiration, and that's why I like travelling a lot. For some time I have lived in Italy and Spain.
Vacation is painting in a new ambience.
Copyright © 2012 Werner Schulz-Mönkeberg.
Letzte Aktualisierung: 26.05.2014