Born in: Würzburg (Germany)
Life and work stations: Würzburg, Düsseldorf, Paderborn, Castrop-Rauxel, Münster/Westf., Hannover und Kiel
Since 2002: the artist is living and working in Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
Study visits at: Spain, Italy, Iceland, Turkey, Mexico, India and Desert of Arabia

Many paintings in private property: Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, U.S.A., India

RENATE SANZ

Has felt at home in many different places and, from childhood on, has gained experience in various arts. This early passion might be influenced by the place where she grew up - the artists´ village Sommerhausen near Würzburg in Germany. At her parents´ house also lived the painter and stage director Luigi Malipiero. "When I was a child I was sitting in his studio as often as I could, magically attracted by the variety of the colours, the sounds of the brush and the smell of the oil-based paint. Only some stairs separated me from another world." Renate Sanz had some classical training on the piano, she has performed on stage, she assisted the stage direction, she made sceneries, sketched posters, drew figurines and formes sculptures out of gypsum and steatite. She initiated the foundation of a cabaret theatre and later directed it. Now she arrived at bronze and steel sculptures and painting in oil, acrylic and mixed media. She still loves to travel and incorporates these treasured experiences into her art.

Renate Sanz has a sensuous access to colours. She applies them on pasto, mixed with other materials such as sand or marble-dust, so that relief-like rough surfaces develop. She works with loose pigments, wich she fixes with a special technique, or she works with dry brush-impact. Sharp contrasts shape her paintings, work traces remain visible, bright colour prevails over black-and-white and its intermediate tones. A topic, which emerges again and again in Renate Sanz´ works, apart from abstraction and colour composition, is the human figure, mainly the female. Usually in a form, that stresses graphic, that prefers the line, that works with tokens. She combines the carbon with the acrylic, or makes a figure of tender outline prevail over dark surfaces of black and red, e.g. in "Perception". Despite the colour weight of the environment, the figure evokes the triad.

The paintings are spots within grey everyday life, the adventures of a life, which fortunately holds surprises again and again, the maladjusted, which is excluded and smiled at by society and at the same time observed with secret admiration. Are the unexpressed longing for breaking the chains of compromise and routine, are the highlights of memory or the dreamed future. They express the philosophy of life of the artist, who is unwilling to submit to regulations and orders, who meets life with openness and curiosity.