Bele Bachem Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Sculptor, b. 1916 - d. 2005

Bele Bachem (née Renate Gabriele Bachem) (May 17, 1916 – June 5, 2005) was a German graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and writer. In 1997, Bachem was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Life and work: Bele Bachem was the daughter of the painter Gottfried Maria Bachem and his wife Hedwig. She was born, and spent her childhood, in Düsseldorf. She went to Berlin University of the Arts at the end of the 1920s, where she was taught by Ludwig Bartning and Max Kraus. Her work quickly attracted attention and she was able to pursue her own style undisturbed. Soon she received her first assignments and was finally taken to Munich by Otto Falckenberg to create stage sets at the theater. In 1940 she married the art historian Günther Böhmer, (died 1992), and later that year their daughter was born. Shortly thereafter, their work was denounced by the National Socialists, and, within a year, public exhibitions of her work were banned.

After the war, Bele Bachem published drawings in the satirical magazine Der Simpl and eventually resumed working on stage designs for the theatre. She illustrated and wrote books and designed for films. From 1954 to 1956 she was a lecturer in the Department of Illustration at the Werkkunstschule in Offenbach am Main. Bele Bachem supplied numerous designs for the porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal and for the wallpaper factory Brascha Rasch.

Bele Bachem is regarded as one of the most important German post-war artists and is, besides Unica Zürn, one of the few surrealists of German literature illustration.