4115 - Siegfried Ratzlaff, "Ariane"

Siegfried Ratzlaff, "Ariane" Frontal half-length portrait facing right, head turned slightly to the right, a mixture of blue, green and violet hues, wearing glasses typical of the 1990s, oil on canvas, signed and dated (19)94, titled and dated again on the reverse, the artist’s address stamp on the stretcher, minor signs of ageing, framed in black, inner dimensions 64.5 x 50 cm. Artist information: German painter, graphic artist, sculptor and teacher (1934, Vangerow, Köselin district, to 2025, Leipzig); regarded as the key inventor of the Decelith engraving technique; resettled from Vangerow [Polish: Węgorzewo/Okonek] in the former Prussian province of Pomerania and moved to Sülzenbrücken/Wachsenburg district in Thuringia; 1949-53 attended grammar school in Arnstadt, 1953-57: studied art education at the Karl Marx University of Leipzig under Elisabeth Voigt, Heinz Olbrich, Hans Schulze and Kurt Biegholdt; graduated in 1957 as a sculptor, 1957-59: Art teacher in Eisleben; from 1959: Assistant Lecturer in Painting and Printmaking at the Karl Marx University of Leipzig; 1961-63: Postgraduate distance learning course at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (HBK) under Lea Grundig; from 1970, lecturer in art education and, from 1978 to 1993, professor of painting and graphic art in the Department of Cultural and Art Studies at the Karl Marx University of Leipzig, 1963-67: candidate member and, from 1967, full member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK) of the GDR; following his retirement in 1993, he worked intensively as a freelance painter in Leipzig and undertook numerous study trips to the Soviet Union (Kyiv, Kazan and Rostov), Czechoslovakia (Olomouc, Prague, Bratislava), Bulgaria, Denmark, London, Provence and Scotland; from 1997 a member and, from 1998 to 2002, deputy chairman of the Leipzig Association of Visual Artists; member of the Lützschena Artists’ Circle; source: Eisold, *Artists in the GDR*, catalogue of the Koenitz Gallery, Leipzig, ‘Siegfried Ratzlaff’ (2022) and Wikipedia.