Cornelia Fischer

Cornelia Fischer ( artist name : Nela ; born September 30, 1954 in Berchtesgaden ; † August 11, 1977 in Salzburg ) was a German - Austrian painter .

Life

Her father was the film director and film producer Hans Conrad Fischer , her mother Hanna Fischer, who died in 1986, was a painter. Cornelia Fischer spent the first years of her life in Berchtesgaden. In 1959 she moved with her family to Salzburg, and in 1971 to Marktschellenberg .

Sick of myeloid leukemia , she spent her first of three eight and a half months stays at the Salzburg State Hospital from April to June 1974 . The illness becomes the "beginning of intense artistic creativity." In February 1975 she obtained the Matura at the Wirtschaftskundliches Realgymnasium in Salzburg and then enrolled at the University of Salzburg art history and philosophy . In the summer of 1975 she attended Jože Ciuha's painting class at the International Summer Academy for Fine arts Salzburg . During the phases of temporary remissions , she undertook two trips lasting several months, in 1976 alone to Lindos on Rhodes , and in 1977 with her parents to California .

Cornelia Fischer died on August 11, 1977 in the Salzburg State Hospital, she was buried in the Salzburg municipal cemetery .

Act

From her illness from 1974 to her death in August 1977, Cornelia Fischer made around 150 pictures in watercolor and tempera technique , which she signed with the artist name Nela and sometimes commented on with small poetic texts. Around a third of her work was done at the bedside. Her pictures were exhibited and recognized in reviews only years after her death.

The defining motifs of her pictures are figures (often a hybrid of humans and plants), birds, cities, trees, bridges and landscapes. For the picture Mysterious Eyes from May 1976 she wrote the following caption as an example: “Eyes that tell things that only the eyes and I understand, eyes that have seen the vastness and know how to tell simple things about them. Everything else is covered, it only depends on the language of the eyes. "

Estate and posthumous appreciations

• Hans Conrad Fischer produced the film Nela in 1979 . The story of a painter , wrote the script for it and also directed it. He designed the portrait with her paintings, photographs, private film recordings, diary excerpts and her favorite music. The film was shown in German-speaking countries, in England and America, and later also on television . In this way, there was a first reception of Nelas painting. There were press reactions, especially at the premiere of the film in Austria, the USA and Great Britain. “It is impossible not to be moved by this film,” said the Los Angeles Times , and CBS-TV said, “A great, poignant film about a wonderfully gifted young girl who was beautiful and who turned her sad fate into beauty. A film about life, not death. "
• In 1980, art critics of American newspapers such as the Evening Tribune, after viewing the film biography , praised Nela's paintings as “of complete, brilliantly colored independence” and praised her “intuitive understanding of archetypal imagery for the cycle of life and death”. Articles about Nela and her work have appeared in Great Britain ( The Times , Financial Times , The Guardian ), the USA (Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union, Readers Hollywood) and Austria ( Kurier , Neue Kronenzeitung , Salzburger Nachrichten ).
• First exhibition of her pictures from October 23 to November 30, 1980 in the Romanesque cellar of Hypothekenbank in Salzburg.
• Exhibition of a selection of her works by the City of Salzburg from July 4th to August 2nd, 2002 in the gallery in Mirabellgarten ; at the same time, the film biography Nela was for the last time so far in the Salzburg film culture center Das Kino . The story of a painter shown.
• In 2002 there was an academic review of her artistic legacy for the first time.
• From June 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008, the new Salzburg Museum presented their complete works in the New Residence. The American art historian Carol Olten paid tribute to her work a. a. as follows: “Nela, a simple, very young woman with astute intelligence, brought an almost mystical wealth of life before death as death came closer and closer and leukemia destroyed the cells of her life. Her trees, flowers, villages and birds show pure joy in the universe that somehow encompassed her. Reality sinks into the fantasy of its strange, dark cities and silhouettes. "

The entire artistic estate of Nela is in the possession of her father Hans Conrad Fischer and is kept by the Salzburg Museum.

literature

• Max Kaindl Hönig: An estate without a shadow. The story of a painter and her death - HC Fischer's film about the daughter “Nela”. In: Salzburger Nachrichten of May 16, 1980
• Ursula P. Zdroick: Cosmic Perspective. Nela's art in the Romanesque cellar of the mortgage bank. In: Salzburger Nachrichten of October 28, 1980
• Bernhard Strobl: Nela. Looks from below. In: Salzburger Nachrichten of July 6, 2002
• Hans-Conrad Fischer: illustrated book "Nela", 1954–1977. Fischer film and television production, Marktschellenberg 2002.
• Elisabeth Rath: To paint means to live. And life is always dying too. Nela (1954-1977) . In: Lifetime Achievements. Nine artistic bequests from Salzburg. Culture Office of the City of Salzburg (ed.). Salzburg 2002. ISBN 3-901014-77-2

Web links

• Literature by and about Cornelia Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Nela - Biography ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Salzburg Museum , online at salzburgmuseum.at  
2. ↑ See: Quotes from Nela ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Salzburg Museum, online at salzburgmuseum.at  
3. ↑ Nela - The story of a painter. Movie. Austria 1979. Direction and screenplay: Hans Conrad Fischer; See also the estate on page 78: Screenplay for the film
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Nela  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Film description with critic quotes from DAS KINO - Salzburger Filmkulturzentrum , online at daskino.at  
5. ↑ Andrea Hoffmann: Nela's story: A young artist faces death and learns about life . In: Evening Tribune, San Diego March 28, 1980
6. ↑ Nela - The Exhibition ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Salzburg Museum, online at salzburgmuseum.at  
7. ↑ Carol Olten: Nela - Cornelia Fischer (1954–1977) - Painting Against Time ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Salzburg Museum, online at salzburgmuseum.at