About The Artist
40 Years OF FINE ART EXHIBITIONS
Since 1986
German-American artist Susanne Schuenke was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, and received her education in Cologne and London, earning her doctorate at the University of Cologne in 1986. Since then she has been living and working successfully in the USA while maintaining strong and lively connections with Europe.
Her fine oil paintings and watercolors possess the technical old-master quality. Her unique stylizations and the rich nuances of her palette enhance her compositions. The panorama of Susanne’s artistic content moves from lyric-narrative stories to philosophical themes and socio-political topics.
In the narrative surrealistic artwork of Susanne Schuenke one can find fascinating connections between form and color, discover an animated dialogue, or start a meditative journey into new dimensions.
Dr. Schuenke has presented her works to an international public in one-person and group exhibitions in England, Germany, France, and the United States.
Paintings of Susanne Schuenke are exhibited in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Lebanon, and South Africa.
Only the Best
Anne Leighton
(former Appraisal Vice President with Christie’s, New York)
Dr. Susanne Schuenke writes novels with a brush. Each of her works, whether in oil, watercolor, litho or crayon, tells a story. Within her well-ordered artistic universe every detail of each composition is planned.
Only the Best
Kristina Piwecki (Schweizer Handelszeitung, Zürich)
In Dr. Susanne Schuenke’s oeuvre, philosophical concepts are diligently transformed into thought-provoking images. The artist sees herself as a narrator of stories which let the beholders of her work discover meanings important to them. Juxtapositions of the disparate is one of her means to add finesse to her pictorial statements. She has indeed captured a wide-ranging spectrum of ideas with the precise strokes of her brush.
Only the Best
Henry Flood Robert, Jr. (Executive Director The Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art)
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the work of Susanne Schuenke is worth a million.Blessed with the imagination of any ten prodigies, Susanne’s work takes us on a journey to a world which thrives on mythological stories, images of her past and thoughts of the future.
Surrounded by thinly balanced color zones, her work zips in and out of the styles of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and even a hint of Surrealism. She blasts the viewer with an iconography… a firestorm of color, mood and intensity.
What seems simple to us, in Susanne’s work, is quite often not. Abstracted curvilinear female torsos are described as “Olympian Goddess”. In another picture a common abstract perfume bottle is configured as a colorful “snake-headed perfume vaporizer”, symbolizing the vamp character of a person.
The richness of her prose equals the work. What is most fascinating is the manner in which her paintings are created. Dr. Schuenke delivers a perfect educational exhibition to expose “artistic process”. In many of the works she draws from an actual scene creating an initial study which she then develops into a mildly abstract study which eventually results in the final work – a large oil painting.
This highly disciplined process yields stunning results. We should draw from their power and finesse.
Only the Best
Ted Weeks (Art critic Jacksonville)
Narrative in mode, minutely representational, rational, yet also surreal, the art of Susanne Schuenke is international in content while distinctly north European in temperament and style.
Only the Best
John Griffins (Art critic London and Edinburgh)
Susanne Schuenke, is the daughter of two artists (:) …Her work is certainly modern, but cannot be assigned to this or that currently fashionable category.
Surely, her work will appeal to those whom the different phases of post-modernism have reeducated in the pleasures and subtleties of neo-classical and metaphysical styles of the 1920s-30s.
There are affinities with the Italian scuola metafisica, with German and Dutch neo-surrealism and Anglo-American and Italian new classicism. The dreamscapes of Magritte, Ernst, Delvaux, Schlichter and Dukoupil put us in the right frame of mind for reading pictures in which the painter relates incongruous detail to create her own work.
Dr. Schuenke and these twentieth century painters use various arrangements of symbolic imagery, but the similarity stops there. In Dr. Schuenke’s world there is nothing of the aridity and terror before the inexplicable we face in De Chirico’s universe and none of the bizzare juxtaposition with which Ernst temps us into exploring the psyche as defined by depth psychology.
Her work may not be Freudian or existentialist. It is not centered on the unconscious or the absurd. She avoids limitations of doctrinaire surrealists, allowing her to paint images with an extraordinary range of historical and cosmic reference.
In short, Schuenke’s work offers a lyrical interpretation of profoundly humane and therefore truly spiritual ideas; a mature conception of the tragic shortcomings of humankind measured by the yardstick of our moral responsibility and the reproachful testimony of the natural world. Above all, she offers us a visually beguiling, painterly representation of a self-contained universe of the imagination where what might be is set against what is.
Since 1986
German-American artist Susanne Schuenke was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, and received her education in Cologne and London, earning her doctorate at the University of Cologne in 1986. Since then she has been living and working successfully in the USA while maintaining strong and lively connections with Europe.
Her fine oil paintings and watercolors possess the technical old-master quality. Her unique stylizations and the rich nuances of her palette enhance her compositions. The panorama of Susanne’s artistic content moves from lyric-narrative stories to philosophical themes and socio-political topics.
In the narrative surrealistic artwork of Susanne Schuenke one can find fascinating connections between form and color, discover an animated dialogue, or start a meditative journey into new dimensions.
Dr. Schuenke has presented her works to an international public in one-person and group exhibitions in England, Germany, France, and the United States.
Paintings of Susanne Schuenke are exhibited in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Lebanon, and South Africa.
Only the Best
Anne Leighton
(former Appraisal Vice President with Christie’s, New York)
Dr. Susanne Schuenke writes novels with a brush. Each of her works, whether in oil, watercolor, litho or crayon, tells a story. Within her well-ordered artistic universe every detail of each composition is planned.
Only the Best
Kristina Piwecki (Schweizer Handelszeitung, Zürich)
In Dr. Susanne Schuenke’s oeuvre, philosophical concepts are diligently transformed into thought-provoking images. The artist sees herself as a narrator of stories which let the beholders of her work discover meanings important to them. Juxtapositions of the disparate is one of her means to add finesse to her pictorial statements. She has indeed captured a wide-ranging spectrum of ideas with the precise strokes of her brush.
Only the Best
Henry Flood Robert, Jr. (Executive Director The Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art)
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the work of Susanne Schuenke is worth a million.Blessed with the imagination of any ten prodigies, Susanne’s work takes us on a journey to a world which thrives on mythological stories, images of her past and thoughts of the future.
Surrounded by thinly balanced color zones, her work zips in and out of the styles of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and even a hint of Surrealism. She blasts the viewer with an iconography… a firestorm of color, mood and intensity.
What seems simple to us, in Susanne’s work, is quite often not. Abstracted curvilinear female torsos are described as “Olympian Goddess”. In another picture a common abstract perfume bottle is configured as a colorful “snake-headed perfume vaporizer”, symbolizing the vamp character of a person.
The richness of her prose equals the work. What is most fascinating is the manner in which her paintings are created. Dr. Schuenke delivers a perfect educational exhibition to expose “artistic process”. In many of the works she draws from an actual scene creating an initial study which she then develops into a mildly abstract study which eventually results in the final work – a large oil painting.
This highly disciplined process yields stunning results. We should draw from their power and finesse.
Only the Best
Ted Weeks (Art critic Jacksonville)
Narrative in mode, minutely representational, rational, yet also surreal, the art of Susanne Schuenke is international in content while distinctly north European in temperament and style.
Only the Best
John Griffins (Art critic London and Edinburgh)
Susanne Schuenke, is the daughter of two artists (:) …Her work is certainly modern, but cannot be assigned to this or that currently fashionable category.
Surely, her work will appeal to those whom the different phases of post-modernism have reeducated in the pleasures and subtleties of neo-classical and metaphysical styles of the 1920s-30s.
There are affinities with the Italian scuola metafisica, with German and Dutch neo-surrealism and Anglo-American and Italian new classicism. The dreamscapes of Magritte, Ernst, Delvaux, Schlichter and Dukoupil put us in the right frame of mind for reading pictures in which the painter relates incongruous detail to create her own work.
Dr. Schuenke and these twentieth century painters use various arrangements of symbolic imagery, but the similarity stops there. In Dr. Schuenke’s world there is nothing of the aridity and terror before the inexplicable we face in De Chirico’s universe and none of the bizzare juxtaposition with which Ernst temps us into exploring the psyche as defined by depth psychology.
Her work may not be Freudian or existentialist. It is not centered on the unconscious or the absurd. She avoids limitations of doctrinaire surrealists, allowing her to paint images with an extraordinary range of historical and cosmic reference.
In short, Schuenke’s work offers a lyrical interpretation of profoundly humane and therefore truly spiritual ideas; a mature conception of the tragic shortcomings of humankind measured by the yardstick of our moral responsibility and the reproachful testimony of the natural world. Above all, she offers us a visually beguiling, painterly representation of a self-contained universe of the imagination where what might be is set against what is.
Solo Exhibitions
| 1989 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Grand Boulevard Mall |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Hill Gallery, Hampstead |
| 1991 | London (Great Britain) – ART ’91 |
| 1994 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – FCCJ South Gallery |
| 1995 | St.Augustine (Florida USA) – Mantanzas Bay |
| 1995 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Design Circus Gallery |
| 1995 | Miami (USA) – Kirschner Haak Fine Art |
| 1996 | Stemshorn (Germany) – Galerie Blanes |
| 1997 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Museum for Contemporary Art |
| 1998 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Westriver |
| 2000 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Stellar’s Art Gallery |
| 2001 | Essen (Germany) – Galerie Reimus |
| 2001 | Frankfurt (Germany) – International Book Fair |
| 2002 | Beirut (Lebanon) – Art Contemporain 2002 Expo Beirut |
| 2003 | Düsseldorf (Germany) – Ministery of Finance |
| 2003 | Boca Raton (Florida USA) – Sun Trust Bank |
| 2006 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 |
Williamsburg (Virginia USA) – Inauguration exhibition “art cafe 26” Asheville, NC, The Marketplace Miami, General Consulate Fed. Republic of Germany Jacksonville, FL – Avondale Artworks Williamsburg, VA – Art Café 26 Valdosta, GA – A. Howell Turner Center for the Arts Jewish Community Alliance, Jacksonville St.Johns County Government, St.Augustine |
Solo Exhibitions
| 1989 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Grand Boulevard Mall |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Hill Gallery, Hampstead |
| 1991 | London (Great Britain) – ART ’91 |
| 1994 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – FCCJ South Gallery |
| 1995 | St.Augustine (Florida USA) – Mantanzas Bay |
| 1995 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Design Circus Gallery |
| 1995 | Miami (USA) – Kirschner Haak Fine Art |
| 1996 | Stemshorn (Germany) – Galerie Blanes |
| 1997 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Museum for Contemporary Art |
| 1998 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Westriver |
| 2000 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Stellar’s Art Gallery |
| 2001 | Essen (Germany) – Galerie Reimus |
| 2001 | Frankfurt (Germany) – International Book Fair |
| 2002 | Beirut (Lebanon) – Art Contemporain 2002 Expo Beirut |
| 2003 | Düsseldorf (Germany) – Ministery of Finance |
| 2003 | Boca Raton (Florida USA) – Sun Trust Bank |
| 2006 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 |
Williamsburg (Virginia USA) – Inauguration exhibition “art cafe 26” Asheville, NC, The Marketplace Miami, General Consulate Fed. Republic of Germany Jacksonville, FL – Avondale Artworks Williamsburg, VA – Art Café 26 Valdosta, GA – A. Howell Turner Center for the Arts Jewish Community Alliance, Jacksonville St.Johns County Government, St.Augustine |
Group Exhibitions
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Riverside One (open competition) |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Royal College of Art |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition |
| 1992 | Ponte Vedra (Florida USA) – Jacksonville Coalition for Visual Arts (member juried show) |
| 1993 | New York (USA) – International Group Show – Montague Art Galleries at ART 54, SoHo |
| 1993 | Moncel (France) – APPF “Salon France-Allemagne” (Silver medal Award for the painting “Four World Concepts”) |
| 1994 | Chicago (USA) – APPAF “Salon France-Americain” |
| 1994 | Miami (USA) – group exhibition Kirschner Haak Fine Art |
| 1994 | New York (USA) – International Group Show – Montague Art Galleries at ART 54, SoHo |
| 1995 | St.Augustine (Florida USA) – Watercolour Society (member juried show) |
| 1998 | New York (USA) – Goldstrom Gallery – show “Surrealism” |
| 2000 | Düsseldorf (Germany) – “Vision 2000” (Hogatec) |
| 2001 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – “Artworks” |
| 2001 | Frankfurt (Germany) – International Book Fair Frankfurt |
| 2004 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Angelwood |
| 2006 | Essen (Germany) – Buergermeisterhaus |
| 2006 2010 2013 2016 |
Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Angelwood Jacksonville, Florida, Women’s Center Jacksonville, Florida – Jacksonville Artists Guild NLAPW Vinnie Ream Competition, Winners Exhibition, Jacksonville |
Group Exhibitions
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Riverside One (open competition) |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Royal College of Art |
| 1990 | London (Great Britain) – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition |
| 1992 | Ponte Vedra (Florida USA) – Jacksonville Coalition for Visual Arts (member juried show) |
| 1993 | New York (USA) – International Group Show – Montague Art Galleries at ART 54, SoHo |
| 1993 | Moncel (France) – APPF “Salon France-Allemagne” (Silver medal Award for the painting “Four World Concepts”) |
| 1994 | Chicago (USA) – APPAF “Salon France-Americain” |
| 1994 | Miami (USA) – group exhibition Kirschner Haak Fine Art |
| 1994 | New York (USA) – International Group Show – Montague Art Galleries at ART 54, SoHo |
| 1995 | St.Augustine (Florida USA) – Watercolour Society (member juried show) |
| 1998 | New York (USA) – Goldstrom Gallery – show “Surrealism” |
| 2000 | Düsseldorf (Germany) – “Vision 2000” (Hogatec) |
| 2001 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – “Artworks” |
| 2001 | Frankfurt (Germany) – International Book Fair Frankfurt |
| 2004 | Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Angelwood |
| 2006 | Essen (Germany) – Buergermeisterhaus |
|
2006 2010 2013 2016 |
Jacksonville (Florida USA) – Angelwood Jacksonville, Florida, Women’s Center Jacksonville, Florida – Jacksonville Artists Guild NLAPW Vinnie Ream Competition, Winners Exhibition, Jacksonville |
Limited Editions
Periodicals
Great American Writers: Twentieth Century Vol.11, R. Baird Shuman. Publi.: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2002 page/image 1485 “The Sea of Time”
Great World Writers: Twentieth Century Vol.5, page/image 613. Publisher: Marshall Cavendish 2004. Patrick O’Neil .“Sleeper” (Schuenke)
Great American Writers: Twentieth Century I Index – Vol.13, R. Bair Shuman. Publ.: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2002 .“The Sea of Time” 111485
Popular Contemporary Writers I Index – Vol 11. Michael D. Sharp.Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2006 .“Ideology”, page/image 91202
Great World Writers: Twentieth Century I Index Vol.13. Patrick M. O’Neil.Publisher: MarshalL Cavendish, 2004.“Sleeper”, page/image 5613
Schweizer Handelszeitung January 1991
Zuercher Tageszeitung 1993
Hampstead Ham and High,London, November 1990
Florida Times Union ,Jacksonville, May 1995
Arbus Magazine, March 1997, November 2004, March 2005
First Coast Living , September 2003
Luxury Living ,May 2006
Encore Magazine, Jacksonville Symphony, season opening,
September 2002
Checkup, Mayo Clinic , Jacksonville , February 2005
Higher Education
University of Cologne: 1977-1981 and 1982-1986
University of London,Westfield and University College
1981-1982 . Study of Art History – Grant awarded by the King Edward VII Foundation
Magister Artium (M.A.) 1983 University of Cologne
Art History (major)Archaeology (minor) and Ethnology (minor)
Thesis: Floor plans in English Churches 11th to 13thcentury
Doctorum Philosophicum(Ph.D.) 1986 University of Cologne Art History (major) Archaeology (minor) and Ethnology (minor)
Thesis:1986 The Development of the Choir Form in English Major Churches from 1066 until mid13th century .Published at the University of Cologne, February 1987
Listed in: The International Center of Medieval Art, The Cloisters, New York, International Census of Doctoral Dissertation in Medieval Art, 1982-1993, Dorothy Glass (ed) . Review in: Das Münster, 1987
Researcher of the arts:
Limited Editions
Periodicals
Great American Writers: Twentieth Century Vol.11, R. Baird Shuman. Publi.: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2002 page/image 1485 “The Sea of Time”
Great World Writers: Twentieth Century Vol.5, page/image 613. Publisher: Marshall Cavendish 2004. Patrick O’Neil .“Sleeper” (Schuenke)
Great American Writers: Twentieth Century I Index – Vol.13, R. Bair Shuman. Publ.: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2002 .“The Sea of Time” 111485
Popular Contemporary Writers I Index – Vol 11. Michael D. Sharp.Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2006 .“Ideology”, page/image 91202
Great World Writers: Twentieth Century I Index Vol.13. Patrick M. O’Neil.Publisher: MarshalL Cavendish, 2004.“Sleeper”, page/image 5613
Selected articles about Schuenke’s art work are published in:
Schweizer Handelszeitung January 1991
Zuercher Tageszeitung 1993
Hampstead Ham and High,London, November 1990
Florida Times Union ,Jacksonville, May 1995
Arbus Magazine, March 1997, November 2004, March 2005
First Coast Living , September 2003
Luxury Living ,May 2006
Encore Magazine, Jacksonville Symphony, season opening, September 2002
Checkup, Mayo Clinic , Jacksonville , February 2005
Higher Education
Study ofArt History(major), Archaeology(minor) and Ethnology(second minor)
University of Cologne: 1977-1981 and 1982-1986
University of London,Westfield and University College
1981-1982 . Study of Art History – Grant awarded by the King Edward VII Foundation
Magister Artium (M.A.) 1983 University of Cologne
Art History (major)Archaeology (minor) and Ethnology (minor)
Thesis: Floor plans in English Churches 11th to 13thcentury
Doctorum Philosophicum(Ph.D.) 1986 University of Cologne Art History (major) Archaeology (minor) and Ethnology (minor)
Thesis: 1986 The Development of the Choir Form in English Major Churches from 1066 until mid13th century. Published at the University of Cologne, February 1987
Listed in: The International Center of Medieval Art, The Cloisters, New York, International Census of Doctoral Dissertation in Medieval Art, 1982-1993, Dorothy Glass (ed) . Review in: Das Münster, 1987
Researcher of the arts:
ART IN PUBLIC LOCATIONS
Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Davis Building
Library at UNF, Jacksonville
“The Flight Of Wisdom”
Washington National Cathedral
USAF Air Force Art Collection
ART IN PUBLIC LOCATIONS
Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Davis Building
14 foot wide mural, 2004
“Give Me Wings!”
Library at UNF, Jacksonville
35″ x 51″, Oil and Gold Leaf on Linen 2005
“The Flight Of Wisdom”
Washington National Cathedral
Washington, DC, 2005
“On the Wings of a Dove”
USAF Air Force Art Collection
(pending: Pentagon Collection)
“Raining Hope”