DGM Dům Gustava Mahlera

Thea Weltner

Exhibition name - The Dream World of Thea Weltner
Source: Chronik in Weiss, Thea Weltner, 1917 - 2001

• Thea Weltner
• * 1917 Jihlava
• + 2001 Zurich

Artist, scenographer, fashion design, performance artist

She was born on April 21, 1917, in Jihlava, then still a part of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. In this town, which became Czechoslovakian starting in 1918, she spent her childhood and youth, as her relative Gustav Mahler had, several decades before. However, like Mahler she left the native town in adulthood and fate led her to various spots in the world.
After graduating from the Jihlava Gymnasium in 1935 she left to study philosophy at Charles University in Prague. However, in the turbulent period of the late 1930s she did not finish her studies, and in 1936-37 she attended the school of fashion design in Prague. It was in this field and furniture design and historical costumes that she worked in the following years. Her Jewish descent, the traumatic experience of the war years, during which her whole family died, as well as her unfinished studies in philosophy had a substantial influence on her later artistic development and creation.
After W.W.II she returned to fashion design, first in Prague, and after 1948 in Germany. However, the following year she left the country and spent the next 17 years in Australia, where she again devoted her time to fashion design and painting. She returned to Europe in 1966 and settled in Switzerland. I 1973–74 she attended the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. She participated in several common exhibitions of Zurich artists, and soon her fragile and veiled works attracted public attention, even beyond Swiss borders. In 1979 she was admitted to the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (Gesellschaft Schweizerischer Maler, Bildhauer und Architekten, GSMBA). The end of the 1970s meant the beginning of more than twenty years of marked artistic activity. Thea Weltner did deal exclusively with art for exhibitions, she also participated in stage designs for several theatrical plays, projects, and performances (for instance the 1983 “Golden Waterworks” project in N.Y.). The entire work of Thea Weltner is characterised by the already mentioned fragility and all-inclusive mystery, just as it was by her preference for white and the almost complete absence of other colours. The prevailing themes comprise in particular issues of the existence and aspirations of mankind, the end of the world and its possibility, and also cultural policy and many other themes which remain topical even today and wait for answers or for further questions.

Thea Welner died on May 17, 2001, in Zurich, and in 2003 she was awarded in memoriam the Prize of the Town of Jihlava. The displayed objects come from the artist’s estate. At her express will the objects were placed in the House of Gustav Mahler. Further works are to be found, for instance in collections of the National Gallery in Prague, in the House of Art in Zurich, in the Library of Art of the State Museum in Berlin, and in private collections in Europe and USA.

Selection of exhibitions and projects:

• 1979
  • ”Thought and Recollection,” Zurich
  • ”Lydia Welti-Escher,” Bern, House of Art, Zurich
• 1980
  • ”From Design to Statue,” exhibition of GSMBA, House of Art, Zurich
  • ”Case with Crown and Wings,” Walcheturm Gallery, Zurich
  • ”Separation from Bed and Board,” Basel, Munich, Frankfurt am Main
• 1982
  • ”Hommage Vasilij Kandinsky”, scenography for theatrical play ”Down with giants” Performed for instance in Milan, Rome, Munich, Hamburg, New York
  • ”Retrospective, Thea Weltner,” University Museum of Fine Arts, Marburg
  • ”TightenYour Safety Belts,” Zurich
• 1983 ”Golden Waterworks,” New York
• 1986 ”Books Without Words,” Bellerive Museum, Zurich. One year later in Lausanne.
• 1987 Exhibition in Schedhalle, Zurich
• 1989 ”Art Books,” Michéle Keller Gallery, Bern
• 1990 ”Lydia Welti-Escher”, installation of 1979. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gottfried Keller’s death, House of Art, Bern.
• 1993/94 Exhibition of artists working in Zurich, Zurich
• 1993 Exhibition in Paulus Academy, Zurich
• 1994 ”Artistic Design of aTea Trolley,” exhibition for the benefit of SOS Children’s Village in Tirana, House of Art, Zurich
• 1996 ”X-ray assemblages,” Annamarie M. Anderson Gallery, Zurich
• 1998 “KunstAction im Rotkreuz Spita,l, Zurich
• 1990 Exhibition in Schedhalle, Zurich