Ulla Wobst

Chianciano Art Museum

Critical Analysis Artist: Ulla Wobst Art Critic: Christopher Rosewood

ICAC

International Confederation of Art Critics

Critical Analysis Artist: Ulla Wobst Art Critic: Christopher Rosewood

The Museum The Museum of Art of Chianciano hosts a series of collections ranging from Neolithic and Asiatic to Contemporary art.

There are approximately a thousand works on display.

Visitors are able to view paintings and sculptures by artists such as Tom Nash, Salvador Dali, Sir Henry Moore, Frances Turner, Mario Schifano, Damien Hirst, Brian Willsher and Albert Louden, drawings by the likes of Magritte, Guttuso and Munch; historical works from Royal Collections and original etchings by masters such as Dürer and Rembrandt.

The museum is known for organising annual international events, including the Chianciano International Art Award and the Biennale of Chianciano.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) “Joachim and the Angel” Original woodcut, circa 1504

Sir Henry Moore (1898-1986) “Head” Bronze Sculpture

ICAC

International Confederation of Art Critics

The Critic

Christopher Rosewood was born in Hastings in 1952 and is a critical writer and curator based in London.

Rosewood is the creator of the book “Figures; from Realism to Abstraction” that elegantly describes the interiors of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the permanent collections and the artworks of great contemporary artists such as Tom Nash and Jin Cheng Liu. The exhibition was presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was well received by the public and the critics. This important publication is a testament to the difficult task of selecting the artists and hosting the exhibition.

Christopher also selected important works by Frances Turner presented at Museo del Chopo in Mexico. These works were published by the Museum in an important publication during this solo show.

A noteworthy quote by Rosewood is “Always with the artist.” He has a huge admiration for artists who he believes are people that often work in solitude, who create and who send their message to the world, a message that is often related to their feelings -. whether in a still life or a artwork depicting social issues or an abstract that allows the viewer to have a totally personal interpretation of the artwork.

Christopher is not only an art critic of contemporary art but is also well known his research on Renaissance artists. Christopher contributed to important writings on Palma the Younger, the artist that finished Tiziano’s “Pietà” after his death, as well as his studies on Durer, Rembrandt and Rubens. Rosewood was a great friend of Bill Hopkins of the International Association of Art critics with which he participated in research on the various aesthetic expressions linked to art and the philosophy of form.

“Forever” oil on canvas by Ulla Wobst

The Artist

Ulla Wobst was born in Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Germany. After having studied philology (German and English literature and language) at the Universities of Munich, Tuebingen, Berlin, Cologne, Muenster and Wuerzburg she became headmaster at a German Gymnasium, responsible for the Language and Fineart Department and teacher for German, English and Drama.

Parallely -as an autodidact- Ulla developed her faculties of painting. Since 2001 she worked as free lance artist in her atelier in Dortmund. Ulla’s work is concentrated on man, life, love and death but also on literature and foreign cultures.

“Reality is infinite. It consists of everything revealed to us by our senses, lived an experienced, and as well includes everything imagined, felt, dreamed and thought of. But it is not limited to all this. In the realms of spirit and soul there are no boundaries.”

For this purpose, Ulla makes use of an archive of literary relations, dream projections and memories and also employ abstract, symbolic and surreal elements.

Ulla exhibited in Germany, Italy, China and United States.

Prizes: • 2015, Leonardo Award, Third Prize, Chianciano Biennale 2015, Italy • 2015, Sandro Botticelli Prize, Museum ‘Home of Dante Alighieri’ in Florence • 2013: Honourable Mention Certificate Prizes, 8th Artavita Contest • 2013: First prize for painting, Biennale Chianciano, Anglo-italian Academy Award.

• 2013: First prize for painting at London Art Biennale, Anglo-Italian Academy of Art Award.

• 2013: Palm Art Award, Leipzig, Special Prize Winsor and Newton.

• 2012: Honourable Mention Certificate (ECAC) , Art of the mind, Chianciano

“Protector of the Birds“ mixed media on canvas by Ulla Wobst

The Critique Ulla Wobst’s paintings tell stories. Stories that our mind is called to interpret with pressing insistence. A narrative of messages originating from her subconscious and from her surrounding experiences. Some of her works, for example, tell of literary or mythological characters that have a deep meaning to the artist and which she paints with a very personal, emotional and imaginative style. These thematics place Ulla among the protagonists of today’s art scene.

Her main subject is the human being, with its intrinsic mystery and the great unanswered themes that surround it. In her interpretation of the figure one can see the full range of the artist’s feelings: joy, love, anguish, solitude. The viewer sees his own multifaceted emotions represented in her works. Her art penetrates our soul, sometimes caressing it, others, persecuting it.

Ulla’s style reminds us of the great masters of Surrealism, but there is also a clear connection to De Chirico’s Pittura Metafisica, where the empty spaces between the elements of the composition and the sharp contrast between light and shadow lend an aura of mystery to her paintings and enable us to savour each detail of her vision, always embedded in fantastic backgrounds.

Technically, Ulla uses a varied range of means: watercolours, acrylics, pastels, oil and mixed media on paper or canvas. A lot depends on the mood and sensitivity of the moment, on what she intends to transmit to the viewer, not only from the point of view of the composition, but also from her feelings. In this way, through the marvellous use of different techniques, she manages to differentiate her art and become a complete artist, always ready to experiment, open to new emotions that not only transport the viewer, but capture him silently from the dark folds of the shadows. In the same way it enables her to convey her style in a less formal or traditional manner. In her works we often find that each figure is enclosed in a distinct geometric shape, full of colour and contrast, to highlight the movement and narrative of the subjects that express an independent life of their own, inside the greater picture that is the composition in its entirety. An extremely intense and vivid experience where poetry and art fuse together with sentiments and consistency.

Wobst’s paintings transmit a matter of fact tranquillity, but also inquietude.

One can immediately denote that Ulla has a deep knowledge of the human being, she penetrates the thoughts, the subconscious mind and transmits messages that one had no knowledge of. Her works help to better comprehend long forgotten emotions, sensations and dimensions. One is deeply enthralled by the elucidation of her reality. She guides the viewer on a journey through her choice and interpretation of the subject, so that he not only experiences the visual effect of her art, but also, the almost tactile presence of her being.

The dynamic complexity that transpires through her canvases is finely filtered through her intellectual and psychological sensitivity and depth.

Christopher Rosewood International Confederation of Art Critics

“Rainmagic“ oil on canvas by Ulla Wobst

“Master of the Watersnakes“ mixed media on canvas by Ulla Wobst

International Confederation of Art Critics www.international-confederation-art-critics.org