Ernestine Tahedl
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Artist Profile
Ernestine Tahedl was born and educated in Austria, receiving a Master’s Degree in graphic art from the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts. Following graduation in 1961, she collaborated with her father, Professor Heinrich Tahedl, in the design and execution of stained glass commissions until she immigrated to Canada in 1963.
Her work is represented in public, corporate, and private collections and galleries in Canada, the United States, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan. Her awards include the Graduation Prize of the Austrian Government 1961, the Bronze Medal of the Vienna International Exhibition of Paintings 1963, the Allied Arts Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 1966, and a purchase award, Concourse Artistique du Quebec 1966. In 1967, she received a Canada Council Arts Award, in 1999 she received the Mayor’s Prize at Kyoto ’99, Kyoto, Japan, and in 2000, the Kobe Sun Prize at Flora Art 2000 at Awaji Island, Hyogo, Japan.
She was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1977 and of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1984. She received the Governor General’s Canada 125th Anniversary Medal in 1993. She was the recipient of the 2000 Arts and Letters Award from the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, and the “In Celebration of Women” Arts, long-term Achievement Award 2004. She was invited to participate in the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy in 2003.
“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.”
Walter Pater (1839-1894)
This Series of paintings allows me to immerse myself in “pure” painting without being lost in it.
Over the years I have searched for this freedom in my work. I explore and try to find the balance between the realistic image and the pictorial values for my paintings.
The concept of multiple canvases and panels has always fascinated me. I hope that spirituality and serenity are integral to my work. Colour and light are additional factors that guide my work. Colour to me is light.
For me, the Series comes close to a musical experience and was painted and inspired while listening to classical music, which is reflected in the titles of the works.
I feel these paintings are a more direct, human, and spiritual expression without confinement of the motif or formal restriction; yet still consist of all those elements that I have explored in my work over the years.
Select Exhibitions
- 2017 Stift St. Florian, Upper Austria
- 2016 Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
- 2014 Kunstebene, Schloss Pöggstall, Lower Austria
- 2013 Austrian Cultur Forum. Bratislava, Slovakia
- 2012 Moderna Galerija, Zagreb, Croatia
- 2012 NÖ Dokumentationszentrum für Moderne Kunst, St.Pölten, Austria
- 2008-2014 John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 2006 Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Unionville, Ontario, Canada
- 2006 Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA