Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich (1903 – 1985)

• Biography: An Austrian painter, printmaker and author, Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich studied in Vienna and Berlin in the 1920s where she developed a distinct technique in the style of New Objectivity. She exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, the Vienna Secession in 1928, the Wiener Frauenkunst from 1929 to 1933, and the Hagenbund from 1931 to 1935. She also participated in the 1930s in exhibitions at the Galeria Würthle, in Amsterdam, and at the World Fair in Paris. She received a silver medal in an exhibition in Paris in 1937.
  A descendant of the Bloch-Bauer family, she was surrounded with aesthetics and art patronage from her birth. Her aunt Adele-Bloch Bauer held art salons and supported many famous artists, sitting for portraits for Gustav Klimt. Bettina had the best tutors, including Adolf Böhm, and she counted many artists amongst her friends. In 1930 she married the sculptor Georg Ehrlich (1897–1966) and the two moved back to Vienna. She started to experiment with other media, such as fabrics, glass and pastels. From 1932 to 1936, Bettina and Georg spent their summers by the alpine lake of Wolfgangsee, a colony of well-known artists in Austria.
  In 1938, after the ‘Anschluss’, the Bauer-Ehrlichs were forced to flee Austria. Bettina photographed all her works, packed those of her husband, and shipped his works and her photographs, leaving her oeuvre behind in Vienna. In the UK, Georg and Bettina were part of the Freie Österreichische Bewegung, which helped would-be émigrés. Georg’s works are shown at many cultural institutions, including the Tate and St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The whereabouts of Bettina’s works on the other hand, are now a mystery. The only works that are known to the art world today are a few watercolours, silk prints, linotype prints, and a series of children’s books. Having started her work on children’s books in 1927, she made this the focus of her career in the UK and during a stay in the US. One tells a story of Cocolo, a donkey fleeing in a ship to America, and all had the theme of isolation or emigration. In a way, though the high-brow art society has missed a generation of her work, there is a different and potentially larger audience which has seen her characteristic and playful style.
  When it comes to her paintings from the 1920s and 30s, it is difficult to say whether these can be ever found. But her family name is written in Austrian art history for good. Things took a new turn in the 1990s, when Maria Altmann, a cousin of Bettina, fought against the Austrian government in a highly public court case to obtain the ownership of five Nazi-confiscated Gustav Klimt works, including the “Golden Woman” portraying their aunt. Bettina passed away on October 10th 1985 in London. This court battle was after Bettina’s death and fought between the US and Austrian territories, but it can serve as a story that inspires hope in the power of setting art history right, as well as a story unwritten.

  The biographical information here was provided by Maija Zitting, to whom many thanks.

Related Artworks for this Artist ( 1 )