Elizabeth Wang

Women occupy a special role in the art world. Art created by women has a different status until modern times. It is not necessarily male artist colleagues or lack of self-confidence of female artists. It is often life circumstances that force women to follow unusual paths. With her late work, the artist Elizabeth Wang belongs to one of the most important female painters who thematize religious motifs. One of Elizabeth Wang's self-imposed goals was the visualization of the catechism. She often compared her path to faith with climbing a mountain. As to how close the painter came to her goal at the end of her life, Elizabeth is the only one who can accurately assess that.

The life story of the English painter is a tribute to the strength of women. Elizabeth grew up in a home where religious values were of high importance. The family was not wealthy. Elizabeth's parents supported their daughter to the best of their ability and the painter felt her childhood was sheltered and rich in values. Like so many young people, Elizabeth experienced a period when the church and faith no longer had a firm place in her life. However, the consistency with which the young woman excluded the religious component from her life was unusual. One part of her life that had been with her since kindergarten was painting. Looking back, painting was the one constant in every phase of the artist's life. Elizabeth married and settled into what is now a conservative role model. She took care of the house and child while her husband devoted himself to his professional career. When her child slept, Elizabeth used the precious moments for herself and painted. She completely adapted to the rhythm of her family's life. She painted at the dinner table, retreated to empty rooms, and sometimes shared the garage with her husband. Elizabeth arranged and adapted to the circumstances. During this phase she created beautiful flower paintings, still lifes and portraits.

Elizabeth Wang was a self-taught artist. Her father imparted her the ability to look something up and acquire knowledge. The artist never had the opportunity to study. She acquired knowledge from books. Elizabeth visited exhibitions and if she liked a style of painting, then she implemented it in her own personal way. Copying a style was far from the painter's mind. Her models were the Impressionists and Expressionists, whose vivid colors influenced Elizabeth Wang's original realistic style. Van Gogh, Emil Nolde and the school of the "Blaue Reiter" were impulses for the development of the British artist. With great enthusiasm, the painter experimented with the insights gained from Itten's theory of color. The possibility to convey a mood only with the language of color fascinated Elizabeth and every later painting was based on Itten's color wheel.