Heidi Thompson
Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Design Zürich, you nurtured your education in the field of Painting studying at the Academy of Art in Nürnberg and at the Hungarian State University of Art: how do these experiences influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to the aesthetic problem in general?
Thank you for asking about my multifaceted training and how Europe developed my particular aesthetic sensibility.
I moved to Europe after graduating high school in 1974 with the intention of learning a trade. I wanted to be a pastry chef. This idea quickly vanished after being accepted into the University of Art & Design Zürich. During my four years of study, I discovered my passion was painting. However, I majored in photography because it would provide a way to make a living. Studying photography did develop my love for light and dark – the visual language of emotions. This love can still be seen in my paintings today.
After earning my diploma, I moved to Nürnberg. I worked as an apprentice for a fairly well-known artist, Oskar Koller. I learned about the business of art including framing and exhibiting. I then attended the Nürnberg Academy for Fine Art. After one year, I felt that German abstract expressionism and the turmoil in the school was not for me. I moved to Budapest Hungary seeking a more traditional education. The Hungarian academy was so traditional I thought I’ d travelled back in time. This was marvelous, but at times frightening because of the ominous communist government. During my stay in Budapest, I developed a love for people. The Hungarians were oppressed, yet artistic and passionate. I tried to express universal suffering using themes of people travelling in subways, trains or talking together in cafes. Before I was permitted to leave Hungary my artwork had to be inspected and stamped for approval by the government.
While in Europe my most influential mentor was a 43 year-old Transylvanian artist, Klaus Schmidt. Klaus was the son of a SS officer who ran away from home after his father threatened to have him shot. Now that was dark Europe! Klaus was accepted into the Austrian Art Academy and studied under the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka( the guy who received the famous art scholarship that Hitler unfortunately didn’ t get).
Klaus had a sensitive but tortured soul. He told me that that life and art are one.“ If you want to be a great painter, you have to live life deeply and embrace suffering- not only your personal suffering but the pain of others.” His paintings were raw, passionate, semi-abstract portraits. His technique used shifting, slashing forms similar to the artist Francis Bacon.
Klaus taught me that great painters“ Throw the paint onto the canvas with emotion, passion and pain until Truth reveals itself.” He told me,“ Study the masters like Goya, Velasquez and Rembrandt. Study their brushwork. See how every dab of paint is executed with energy and intention. See