Introduction
When Mandy Friedrich came to study painting at the Dresden Art Academy in 1999, she met Siegfried Klotz and Elke Hopfe, and in 2005, as a master student, she met Ralf Kerbach. Siegfried Klotz in particular, the »people searcher« and great representative of the traditional Dresden school, became her pioneering teacher. His absolute identification with painting, his sense of colour and his determination to »build pictures from colour« were internalised and further developed by her in her own way.
Mandy Friedrich is passionate about painting. With dynamic, intuitive brushstrokes, she seeks a balance between motif-oriented realism and form-dissolving, painterly expressionism. She develops figures and objects with an almost physical presence from the mass of colour, bringing them to life against rugged backgrounds. Thanks to her exciting compositions, confident brushwork and beguilingly light-filled colourism, she creates incomparable visual worlds: landscapes, portraits and still lifes. These are images of painterly depth and sensitivity, bursting with energy and vitality. A style of painting that impresses with its virtuoso craftsmanship and precise observation.
Mandy Friedrich finds her themes in nature, everyday life and history, literature and music, art and religion. Her portraits and landscapes are particularly impressive. Mandy Friedrich paints friends and companions, explores rural and urban spaces, always with a keen eye for the inconspicuous and seemingly insignificant.
This type of painting does not focus primarily on the subject depicted, but rather on the feelings inherent in it and metaphorical images. Landscapes become »landscapes of the soul«, portraits become »mirrors of the soul« as was already demanded by Renaissance portraiture.
In this way, the inner life and state of mind of the subject become visible. From her immediate observations, Mandy Friedrich penetrates to the essence of people or landscapes, searching for changes and sensing moods. Again and again, she creates self-portraits, sometimes radical and unsparing, which correspond to her need for self-assurance and critical questioning. For Mandy Friedrich, painting is connected with feeling. Her pictures are often created in a frenzy, in an act of controlled spontaneity. Her passionate relationship with music is not without influence, lending her untamed, powerful painting style a palpably pulsating sound.
In addition to delightful cheerfulness, Mandy Friedrich's paintings also have an underlying melancholic tone. Bright, luminous colours are accompanied by ominous dark shades, reflecting both the light and the shadows of life. The artist embarks on a journey of discovery, painting beauty and decay, presenting new beginnings and failure, life and death before our eyes. Mandy Friedrich's paintings pay homage to nature, life and humanity.
