Elvira Bach

ELVIRA BACH was born in Neuenhain/Taunus in 1951. After her studies at the Staatliche Glasfachschule in Hadamar and the University of the Arts at Berlin, she first worked at the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin as property woman, foyer attendant and prompter. 1982 she moved to the Dominican Republic by means of a grant. After making her name as the only woman amongst the "New German Painters" of the late 1970s, her participation at documenta 7 in 1982 led to international fame.

Elvira Bach paints women; seductive, self-assured and provocative women, whose powerful colours claim the whole space of the painting. She uses herself as a model. Searching and discovering the own self is the theme, that pervades her work. The iconography of her paintings perennially stages the triumph of femininity and above anything else reflects the personal experiences of the artist. With few exceptions, these paintings are self-portraits that uninhibitedly and in many facets depict the artist assuming a wide variety of characters.