Ilse Bernheimer

At the Kunstschau Wien (Vienna Art Show) in 1908, she exhibited 30 watercolours in the room dedicated to children’s art. In the same year, 1908, she began taking auxiliary subjects at the Kunstgewerbeschule. From 1909, she was able to study lettering and heraldry with Rudolf Larisch as a guest student and the study of the human form with Anton Kenner in the general department. In 1911, she joined Franz Cizek’s youth art class. Finally, in 1912, she was accepted into Koloman Moser’s painting class. In her first year, she took part in the Abendakt life drawing classes, then led by Oskar Kokoschka, whom she later described as a strong and fascinating personality, full of cheerfulness and energy. She began designing abstract compositions and fabric patterns during her training, which initially did not meet with the approval of her teachers. She was not dissuaded and continued to experiment in this way.

In 1913, while still in the midst of training, she also actively campaigned for women’s rights as a member of a committee of female artists. In 1915, Ilse Bernheimer and her mother Hermine signed the appeal for peace among international women.

After graduating, she continued her practice and training. In 1919, she travelled to Zurich, where she worked in the Wolfensberg lithography workshop. In Paris, she met the painter Henri Manguin, with whom she lived in St. Tropez for two years, until 1925. During this artistic phase, surrounded by numerous artistic personalities, including Henri Matisse, she turned her attention back to figurative art.

Back in Vienna, the artist worked for a year as a teacher at the Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen. However, she was soon dismissed as she had allegedly “familiarised her students too much with French Impressionism“. The painter had invited Oskar Strnad, whom she had not known personally until then, to an exhibition of her students at the Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen. When Strnad arrived, Ilse Bernheimer was quickly fascinated by his personality and asked to become his assistant. As a result, from 1926 to 1927 she was the private assistant of Oskar Strnad, whom she greatly admired. Strnad taught the architecture class at the Kunstgewerbeschule and also taught students of stage design. Ilse Bernheimer produced scenographic designs for Strnad’s classes. In 1930, she organised a private preparatory course for students of Eduard Wimmer-Wisgrill’s fashion studio at the Kunstgewerbeschule.

She probably owed her participation in the Wiener Werkbundsiedlung in 1932 with the establishment of the Brenner House to the mediation of Oskar Strand.

In the years leading up to her emigration, she is known to have spent time in Umbria and Rome (1936).

In 1938, she emigrated to Italy with her parents to escape persecution by the Nazi regime. In 1940, Ilse Bernheimer lived with her family in Trieste, then in Porteole in the province of Udine. The family was probably rather well-off and was able to make a living during the difficult war years. From 1943 to 1946 she stayed in Rome, then probably with relatives in Friuli.

From 1950, Ilse Bernheimer’s permanent residence was in Venice, and in 1952 she took up a teaching position again, teaching at the School of Glasswork in Murano. However, life was not so easy, so in 1957 she applied to the Einschreibebogen Fond zur Hilfeleistung politisch Verfolgter (Fund for the Assistance of Politically Persecuted Persons in Austria), from which she then received a payment in 1958.

She resumed her artistic activities and was successful in exhibitions in Italy and Austria. Examples of this are 1970 exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Institute in Rome, 1982 exhibition of works by her former student at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Ilse Bernheimer lived in Venice on the island of Guidecca in a flat on the top floor of the Casa dei Tre Oci. The house was renovated in 2012 and became a cultural institute and space for art exhibitions specialising in photography.

The artist continued to work daily into old age and finally died on 28 February 1985 at the age of 93. Ilse Bernheimer was buried at the S. Michele cemetery in Venice.