The Idiosyncratic Fantasies of Bele Bachem: The Life and Work of Germanys Forgotten Postwar Artist

• Main Author: Dorsey, Lydia Jane
• Other Authors: Zucker, Mark J.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2013
• Subjects: Art
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04112013-152716/

This thesis constitutes the first comprehensive analysis written in English on the life and work of German-born, post-World War II artist, Bele Bachem. By translating and critically analyzing her diverse oeuvre, which spanned both fields of "applied" and "fine" arts, this thesis examines the three stages of the artists career: Bachems "Poetic Miniatures" and theater set design under the Third Reich (1938-1945), her postwar commercial work after West Germanys Wirtschaftswunder for Rosenthal Porcelain (1949-1966), and her mature style of narrative fantasy paintings and female portraits completed in the Schwabing bohemian district of Munich (1957-1986). With this thesis, I aim to provide exposure as well as accessibility to a wider audience for this "forgotten" artist who emerged as one of the most famous women of postwar West Germany in the 1950s, but whose diverse and illustrious artistic legacy is fading with the disappearing postwar generation.