Silvia SCHNEIDER

Criticism

Originally from Davos, Swiss artist Silvia Schneider decided to devote herself entirely to art in 1992. Following academic training at the Hanover School of Art and Design, her style (which is free from all conventions) developed very quickly. Since then, the career of the painter (who has lived in Normandy for about fifteen years) has been punctuated with numerous exhibitions in Switzerland, Italy and France, establishing her renown. After experimenting with abstraction, Silvia Schneider purposefully opted for free figuration. In dynamic, inventive and rhythmical compositions, she excludes all artifice in order to focus on exalting her models against remarkable abstract backgrounds, the stark spaces of which allows the artist to emphasise the shapes, volumes, blends and light of her subjects. The mixed media techniques she uses (combining oils and asphalt varnish) complement precise sketches and the elegance of the lively shapes, which emerge as though from the subconscious. The resulting textures combine with a brisk brushstroke as well as a vibrant and heavily nuanced palette of colours, one that is both rich and subtle. No genre escapes Silvia Schneider, who is able to render equally well the beauty of a snowy landscape (poetically reminiscent of her native Switzerland), the intimate grace of evanescent nudes with pure and undulating lines, everyday life in genre scenes stripped of all unnecessary artifice, and even the acuity and vigour of her superb horses, which are worthy of the work of Théodore Géricault. These vivacious and emotive artworks are the very expression of the artist's feelings faced with a world oscillating between chaos and the sublime, in order to express the imperial need for a return to harmony. Silvia Schneider is able to render the essence of what concerns her most. "Art does not reproduce what we see, rather, it makes us see," wrote Paul Klee. The subjectivity in her work operates perfectly to confer an inner life to the subjects and to restore the essence of things in perfectly aesthetic paintings that are laden with power, mystery and poetry. They represent a pictorial lyricism that renews figuration in painting.

Francine BUNEL-MALRAS, Historian of Art

Exhibitions

Du 14/05/2022 au 15/05/2022 : BENOUVILLE : SILVIA SCHNEIDER PRESIDE LE 30e SALON DE PEINTURE A LA SALLE POLYVALENTE

Du 10/09/2016 au 25/09/2016 : CAEN : 62è SALON D'AUTOMNE DES ARTISTES INDEPENDANTS DE BASSE-NORMANDIE A L'HOTEL DE VILLE

Du 23/04/2016 au 08/05/2016 : TINCHEBRAY-BOCAGE : 16è BIENNALE INTERNATIONALE DE PEINTURES ET SCULPTURES A LA SALLE LE COLYS'HAIES

Du 07/01/2016 au 31/01/2016 : CAEN : EXPOSITION SILVIA SCHNEIDER-BOUTEL "NUS, SCENES DE VIE, PAYSAGES" A LA GALERIE D'ART

Du 13/06/2015 au 14/06/2015 : CAEN : EXPOSITION COLLECTIVE "PEINTURE ET SCULPTURE AU FEMININ" A L'EGLISE DU VIEUX SAINT-SAUVEUR