Crossing mythical borders – the light-travels of Anna Breycha
The truth, or searching for truth are the central themes in the paintings of Anna Breycha - but it doesn’t mean an universal truth, but about a very personal …
"Painting" writes Anna Breycha is like a daily writing of experiences ". The strong reference to ancient myths in her painting therefore is no contradiction but follows straight Kafka's sentence which states: “Mostly the one you looking for, lives next door ". Myths' in this sense are also reflecting psychological content and therefore they remained such powerful effect until today.
What can we see on Anna Breycha images – nothing what would be clearly identifiable? What at first looks like a pure abstraction, becomes in the next second almost naturalistic forms: such as Landscapes, endless horizons caves, ocean, clouds. They appear and disappear again.
Colors and shapes seem to move in the storm and become transformed to figurative schemes, appear again on the surface and dive back into the infinite ground – a natural spectacle of an amazing beauty. Even those blurs, as we know from the photography are like an abstraction in her paintings, like a new informal. An opulent range of the eye of the beholder and occasionally something theatrical, a drama of nature and of course also of the romance.
And as it is so, she has no interest on those dark masters of paintings, such as K.O.Götz or Sonderborg, like some people use to say for instance. Anna Breycha paints not really the truth, but she is desperately transmitting the glow of lights - or is it vice versa?
Ludwig Zerull
ANNA BREYCHA, painter.
Lives in Lüchow/Dannenberg (Northern Germany) is working in different countries.
1948 Anna Breycha was born in Falkenberg / Elster (former DDR, East Germany). Her mother was Dutch, the father was born in Prague. Her father was a professional windmill builder, who devotes to paint and make music in his free times. Often Anna accompanies her father to paint in nature. So she grew up with "brushes and mandolin".
1960 the family left the (former) DDR for West Germany
1970 In the early 70s Anna works as a model in Paris and London. It was very important - and formative for her artistic development of future. As a model she had to travel around the world. She visited and lived partly in many countries such as Marokko, Ostafrika, etc ... Fascinated by the originality and simplicity of all these foreign cultures she decided to move to the countryside.
1973 Anna came to Lüchow / Dannenberg (Germany) and lives since then in the country side – between all her long trips.
1975 – 1982 Anna’ s interest was first the photography where she found her subjects in their new environment: landscapes and people, the anti-nuclear movement, the occupancy of the village (Gorleben, Germany). Later she worked on her portraits of artist friends.
1981 studied as a student experimental photography at the Polytechnic in Kassel. Simultaneously she visited act-drawing courses and finally she chooses for painting.
1982 She went to Mallorca for a year, as a student of the American painter Norman Jenkins (a former student of the famous painter Fernand Leger).
1984 – 1988 1984-1988 she becomes a student of Prof. George Eisler and Prof. Josef Mikl at the Summer Academy in Salzburg.