Born in Germany in 1941, the artist settled in North Cyprus in 2002 after a period of different experiences including 2 years in South Africa (1962-64) and 5 years on a sail boat with her husband (1997-2007).
As a very productive artist, Trautmann opened many personal and group exhibitions during her stay in Cyprus, joined different art groups and with her books (Art and Creativity in Northern Cyprus I-II), she has taken successful steps in archiving art, a major deficiency in the northern part of Cyprus. Both the books she has written and the articles she has published on her private website about art events happening on the island constitute an important resource for those who want to follow the art environment in Cyprus today.
Generally working on cardboard or paper, the artist has 110 artworks present in the art collection of Eastern Mediterranean University so far. The artist applies watercolors, acrylics, ballpoint pens and pastels on cardboard and paper. Among all these, watercolor is a material that is difficult to use and requires attention because it dries quickly and easily and disperses during application. In addition to all, the most interesting aspect of the artist's practices is the extraordinary and unique material used. These include coal, chalk and even Turkish coffee. Thus, she presents the audience with similar figures, yet with very different textures. The Turkish coffee stains, which seem to have accidentally splattered on figures with thick contours, allow the work to continue its change over time, with differences in color and texture as it dries. In addition to the works mentioned above, the presence of Trautmann's practices featuring styles beyond drawing including printing and collage are also an indication of the artist's bold use of many different techniques.
Subjects of Heidi Trautmann's paintings in the collection include landscapes and places she has visited as well as human figures in various positions. These figures are sometimes composed of people who stand alone and pose, and sometimes people who sit in crowded groups and chat. Some pictures of these groups of people portray a complete Cypriot afternoon. Women sitting in front of the door, having a casual coffee, chatting, people reading and resting, and so on. The majority of the artist's figures, which often depict her acquaintances and friends, are women. Some of these paintings, which are not very large, are like a sketch made with one color, while others are like a festival place where all the crowded and variegated colors are collected in one plane. This is a form of use that may vary depending on the artist's mood or the effect she wants to leave. The dark bold contours that the artist mostly uses remind us of primitive cave paintings. Colors and strokes are perceived as two separate elements in the plane. In these paintings, which can be described as quite simple, the color seems to have been accidentally spilled on the figure drawn or smeared on some parts of the paper.
Trautmann's collage practices, which adress different socio-political problems both on the island and in the world, are also remarkable. Collage is a technique that has been favored by artists over the years, especially for creating highly critical artworks. Early examples of this can be observed in the practices of Hannah Höch, the bold female artist of the Dadaism movement. Höch's collage, in which a bulb-headed female body is placed on emblems of famous car brands, critically approaches the view of women as commodities in the male-dominated world. A very similar practice can be observed in Heidi Trautmann's works.
In her work titled Power which was produced in 2010, Trautmann affixes a latest model sports car and a female character with muscular body, that is often attributed to men, on top of the male figure. Each of these elements is what the male-dominated society considers as 'power'. The woman posing with a body other than the typical female body placed in a defiant position with the gaze and posture also provides the viewer with an ironic and critical view. In her work titled 'Behind Wires ' (2009) present in the EMU collection, the artist again emphasizes the mandatory position of women as well as the situation of Cyprus through the pieces of wire she cut and placed on female figures . Apart from all these, the artist's collage practices in which she portrays the problems of transgender and religious characters, the casual people living comfortable lives in other parts of the world despite the chaotic war in the Middle East and nature are also critical and remarkable.
With a strong ability of observation, the artist, who settled on our island with a foreign point of view, provides us with a different view of our people, tries to look and feel like us, and guarantees to leave an important trace in Cyprus with her practical / theoretical contributions to our art world.
CV of the Artist
