Susanne Cäcilie Walther, based near Köln/Cologne (Germany), is a versatile painter, draftswoman and print-maker. Typical for her work is the penchant for instilling strong empathy in the viewer. Herself being endowed with empathic capacities that go beyond the average, Walther steps beyond potential burdens in social life and celebrates it as a fortitude to be fruitfully transformed into art making - in the peace and solitude of her studio.
As far as Walther can think back to her youngest days, she was fascinated by artworks and artists' lives. Yet in school, she had not lived up to expectations. It was said that Susanne would use colors that "didn't fit together". And she was not allowed to draw and paint with her left hand; even though, obviously, she was left-handed. Decades later, around the age of forty, Walther's left-handed creativity broke through with force. The spell was broken. Ever since, parallel to her bread-winning job as a law professor, she would paint every day. Her artwork reached the next level when, in 2010, she met the Düsseldorf based, internationally acclaimed German-Chinese artist and art professor Qi Yang, who became her mentor for several years. Given her personal background, her artwork centers on existential themes, on themes touching the soul, on people. Bold, gestural brushwork and forceful handling of drawing materials such as graphites, pastels, charcoal and chalk mark Walther's style, which is decisively experimental, free and playful. Today, after decades of study and work, Walther is recognized by a unique, yet constantly evolving handwriting. It celebrates her joy of the wonky, the incomplete, the faulty, the dilettantish. That's Walther's trademark.
Susanne Cäcilie Walther works on a variety of themes: Family; Friendship; Loving; Suffering; Loss and dying; What it means to be struck by war, terror and catastrophe; People of public interest such as renowned writers, human rights activists, and political leaders who stand out for their world peace engagement. One overarching theme Walther takes up in recurrent phases and variations is called "Screaming Pope", in tribute to her much admired British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992).
Clearly, Walther's artwork oftentimes requires to endure heavy emotionality. So, to recover and restore power and to regain the quietude necessary to create, Susanne Cäcilie time and time again falls back on Chinese ink painting, both in its traditional, meditative form but also in its free-style, modern variants.
Susanne Cäcilie's works on canvas and on paper, and her mediums are oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels and ink, but also self-made casein. In her drawings she prefers graphites, pastels and charcoal, as well as permanent markers and fine-liners. As to printmaking, so far monotypes prevail, but there are also Japanese woodblock prints.
To date, Susanne Cäcilie Walther had her artwork shown in more than twenty-five group exhibitions, regional and beyond, most recently in two art shows at the Kunst- und Galeriehaus in Bochum/Germany in 2025. In 2014 she had a solo show at the ArtClub in Köln/Cologne.
