|
About the artist Bonnie Wunderlich
BACK TO PAINTINGS
Bonnie Wunderlich grew up in Klein, Texas. In the 70's she studied painting at the University of Houston
and University of Texas. In 1978 she obtained a BFA (in painting and pottery) at the University of Texas in Austin. . (A snap shot glimpse into college days: 1977 Bonnie and painting, Univ of Texas )
Art
movements that have been the most influential to Wunderlich are the American Abstract Expressionists primarily because
of their freedom in brushwork. Favorite artists are Arshile Gorky, Richard Diebenkorn, Mark
Rothko, Edward Hopper, William DeKooning, Marsden Hartley, Everett Spruce, Fritz Scholder, Miro, Cezanne,
Matisse, and Giotto.
In 1991, as director of the Wunderlich
Gallery in Austin, ( Remembering Wunderlich Gallery, Austin, Texas 1990-1995 ). Bonnie became associated with two of the original members of the "Dallas 9",
Everett Spruce and William Lester. Through their early works, she was reintroduced to the landscapes
of West Texas - "Texas Regionalism". Since 1995 Bonnie has
lived and worked as an artist in Terlingua, Texas.
____________________________________________________ More
artist information, below .... . . . . . . . . . . . Home town. Peter Wunderlich (great
great Grandfather), who imigrated to Klein, Texas in 1852, wrote letters back to his parents, which are amazing glimpses back
into life in early Texas, and these letters are in this link. Maria Katherina Wunderlich was Peter's widow, and their
home is among other family homes shown here
Below
are portraits of Grandparents that were paintedby Wunderlich in 1975.
|
|
| Portrait of Grandfather, 24x16, B.Wunderlich |
|
| W. A. Wunderlich, 1975 |
"Agnes Sentesi, Little Grandma"
oil on canvas, 40" x 30"
My Mother's mother came from Tiszalok, Hungary when she was a young woman, to unite with her husband who
had left Hungary 8 years earlier. Grandma was not able to come to America until years after he had left, until the 1920's,
due to the Soviet Union invasion of Hungary. By wagon, from New York to Chicago to Texas, they settled and farmed in Westfield,
Texas, 15 miles from Klein. My Hungarian Grandfather passed away before I was born, and my Grandma was a delight to
everyone that knew her. Her flowers in the garden, embroidering colorful cloths for all her family, her delicious Hungarian
dinners and deserts, and her care and love were all the special things about her that I still cherish in memory.
 |
Grandfather William Wunderlich
oil on canvas
My father's father, Grandpa Wunderlich
had a great sence of humor, was retired from farming in my memory, but still made sausage in the smoke house and had a huge
garden, horses, chickens, and cows, and his farm was such a wonderful place for all of us to come together on Saturday nights,
and to celebrate holidays such as July 4th in the tall pine forest surrounding his field. My grandmother
who was from the Stract family, died when I was 8.
Grandpa was the grandson of Peter Wunderlich, who as a young man in 1852, came from Westfalen,
Germany, arriving in Galveston, and pioneering in Klein, Texas, a German farming settlement. This was my home town. Peter,
my Great-Great Grandfather, was killed in the Civil War in Tomball, Texas in an amunition factory fire at the age of 35. His
early letters to his home family in Germany reveal his reasons for being here: furtile soil, freedom to cut down a tree, and
warmer temperatures for farming. (In the Klein Heritage link)
| Portrait of Grandmother, 40x30 , o/c |
|
| Agnes Sentesi, 1975 B.Wundelrich |
|
|
Hungarian History (Magyars are the
great majority in Hungary).
The Hungarian language and history is
unique, the language having no European elements. In the 5th century, the Hungarians (Magyars) were tribes living around the
Ural Mountains, (which are in the heart of Eurasia, where Eastern Europe and Northern Asia meet). Migrating by way of the
Volga and Caspian Sea, and to the Carpathian Basin, the tribes moved into the Hungarian territory, absorbing the population
already there, the Pannonians. (Pannonian means belonging to Pannon, the nickname for the Sumerian goddess of creation, Anu.)
This was in the last half of the 9th c., but in 1082, the Magyars were Chrisianized. Centuries later, in 1241, the Mongolian
invasion devastated and halted development of Hungary for a century or more. The words Hungary and Hungarian are derivatives
of a Slavicized form of the Turkic words 'on ogur' meaning "ten arrows," which may have referred to the number of Magyar tribes.
(See the links below for detailed history analysis for Hungarian ( Magyars) history.
|
|