Roses for Ilse | Exhibition opening

The painter Christine Rieck-Sonntag met the musician Ilse Wunsch-Mainzer late in life. She was already 89 years old. It became a short but intense friendship in New York City.

Ilse had fled Hitler’s Germany in 1933. She was a young Jewish pianist who had managed to escape at the very last minute. The dream of a career as a concert pianist was over. Her bare life was saved. America had taken her in. Her mother was unable to join her and was murdered. A refugee’s fate from the time when many did not flee to Germany, but had to flee from Germany.

The artist has drawn the life of Ilse Wunsch-Mainzer (1911-2003) with ink lines on telephone directory pages from Manhattan. The picture cycle consists of 21 drawings and is both a tribute and an obituary. At the opening of the exhibition, the painter will talk about her encounters with Ilse Wunsch-Mainzer.

The artist

Christine Rieck-Sonntag was born in Zwickau in 1941. From 1972, she studied religious education in Munich and trained in painting and nude painting.
She trained in painting and nude drawing with Gottfried Bammes (Dresden), Bernhard Heisig (Leipzig) and Ina Barfuß (Berlin), among others; in 1996 she was awarded a certificate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She is a member of the GEDOK and the BBK and has received numerous awards, prizes and scholarships. For her solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad, see Christine Rieck-Sonntag’s website: www.crs-art.de

Event starts at 18:00, viewing of the exhibition is possible from 17:00.

Photo: Christine Rieck-Sonntag (c) Diana Baumgartner, photographer (diana@diebaumgartnerin.de)