This project examines the life of the forgotten artist of the Vienna Secession, Teresa Ries, and her contributions to the world of art. To conduct this research, three scholars, Anka Lesniak, Julie M. Johnson, and Valerie Habsburg, were the main sources used by the researcher to fill in biographical details of the artist’s life. These three scholars conducted their research primarily through the use of primary materials and documents by the artist that are extremely rare and written in German. Besides these scholars, other scholars’ works, including the works of John Berger, Per Faxneld, Megan Brandow-Faller, Susan R. Bowers, and Richard A. Horsley were used by the researcher to help understand the context of the time period and the history of feminist art. Throughout the course of this project, it’s revealed how Ries, a Jewish female artist, was systematically erased from Vienna’s rich history during the period of Nazi occupation in the 1930s-1940s, despite achieving success, notoriety, and receiving plentiful accolades and recognition during her prime working years. Besides the artist’s life, the work that the bulk of this research revolves around is a sculpture entitled The Witch (Die Hexe), or The Witch at her Toilette on Walpurgis Night. The work is analyzed in order to demonstrate what sets it apart from other contemporary and historical works, and why it’s such an important work of early feminist art. The subsequent vandalism that it endured during and after the Nazi occupation reveals the life of the sculpture to be an allegory for the all-too-common phenomenon of the erasure of women and minorities from world history.
Presenter(s): Laila Haidar, Art & Architecture History, and Anthropology Major
Advisor(s): Annie Dell’Aria, Department of Art
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