Brigitta Malche

Malche was born in Linz. She studied under Professor Sergius Pauser at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1956 to 1963. She also attended Oskar Kokoschka’s master class at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg in 1957. During her studies she was awarded five prizes: • Meisterschulpreis für Malerei [Master School Award for Painting]: 1957 • Goldene Fügermedaille für Malerei [Fueger Gold Medal for Painting]: 1960 • Klassenpreis für Kunsterziehung [Class Award for Art Education]: 1960 • Silberne Fügermedaille [Fueger Silver Medal]: 1962 • Klassenpreis für Kunsterziehung [Class Award for Art Education]: 1963 She graduated in 1963 with a diploma in painting and a qualification to teach visual arts in secondary schools. Until 1970 she worked as a teacher at the Musisch Pädagogisches Gymnasium in Linz and Vienna. Since then she has devoted herself completely to her art. Malche lives with her husband Yves Schumacher in Zürich.

• Illustration — Rose Bubble Constructivism Malche's Japan series of paintings, which were made from 1977 onwards, take the appearance of architectural cut-outs and clearly structured façade sections, and testify to how relatively hermetic, constructivist principles can transform a "difficult rectangularity" into a system. The historian Hertha Schober spoke of a "inspired constructivism": "closed surfaces, open rows of bars, blue sky – closed, locked out, open, willingness to communicate [...]." Meditation ‘Paradigm shift in China: not chinoiseries, not works about China, but instead works from China.’ Malche is inspired, among other things, by Chinese traditional lattice windows covered with rice paper. In her paintings she offsets rectangularity with soft, muted light. In a series of images, she depicts the Chinese oracle Yijing's hexagrams with delicate white tones, to reflect the change and flux of the polar forces’ appearances. This work forms the basis of her later light installations and meditation art. Nature exploration This series of paintings (2001) deals with plants and the light that they absorb to make them grow. Graphite and silver leaf are the media used in this series. The reflective qualities of these materials represent the light that is trapped by plants. Malche increasingly focuses on nature and its structures. She presents motifs from various areas of zoology and botany together in a collage-like style. For example, snail shells or sea shells may be interwoven with their molecular structure, or she might develop a crystal’s structure layer by layer. The artist combines patterns from the micro- and macrocosm, abstraction and figuration, movement and geometric patterns. • Illustration — Blaue Orte (Blue Places) • Illustration — Kaurischnecke (Cowrie)

• Illustration — Installation Polarität (Polarity) One example dates from 1996: Brigitta Malche conceived and curated an exhibition titled Fragile – Handle with Care from the paintings collection of the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna. She invited 14 colleagues to select an old master from the collection and to submit an art work of their own in response to the painting. With her own contribution, she transformed the baroque opulence of Nicola Malinconico's magnificent still life into intangible sensuality by transforming the motif of the watermelon into a cosmically exploding installation of colour and light.

• Illustration — North wing facade of the building complex "Schöpfwerk" in Vienna • 1978: Am Schöpfwerk superstructure, Vienna. Brigitta Malche created a colour-coded system for this large complex of 1552 apartments by architect Viktor Hufnagl, with her mural which helps the residents find their way around. Work on the design, which was over 1000 square metres, led to her developing the architectural images in her 'Japan Series', created in 1977/79, according to the Viennese art critic Kristian Sotriffer. • 1980/1981: Bank vault, Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Bern, (with the Atelier 5 architecture group, Bern): approx. 1,000 m² wall painting • 1983: Kirchgemeindezentrum "St. Clara" (St. Clara parish hall), Basel, Switzerland: mural on floor and stage • 1985: Schweizerischer Bankverein (now UBS CH): main hall, art installation • 1987: Höhere technische Bundeslehranstalt Leonding (Higher Federal Technical College Leonding) (HTBL): relief • 2007: Hospital chapel, Landes-Nervenklinik Wagner Jauregg (Wagner Jauregg Neurological Clinic) in Linz: main hall art installation