Stefan Ampenberger – South African Artist, Paintings 1908 – 1983

Stefan Ampenberger was born in Munich, Germany, 1908 - 1983

Art Education
No formal art training except a few art lessons under JH Amshewitz.

Short Artist Biography
- Stefan Ampenberger began painting at home in Bavaria as a youth. Adventurous and restless, he wandered widely on foot and by sea until he came to Southern Africa.
- 1926 Stefan Ampenberger settled in South Africa, met Amshewitz in Johannesburg; modelled for the painter and received guidance in his own amateur painting. Subsequently Stefan Ampenberger traveled the countryside by caravan for 17 years, sketching and exhibiting alongside his wife, Iris.
- 1964 Finally settled at Thaba ‘Nchu. Guest member of the Bloemfontein Group;
- 1968 Stefan Ampenberger sixtieth birthday retrospective art exhibition, Bloemfontein Tech;
- 1972 Executed relief mural panels in cement to Iris Ampenberger’s designs Moroko Hospital, Thaba ‘Nchu; (had at one time carried out a fair amount of sculpture in cement, wonderstone and wood, but preferred to concentrate on painting).
- 1978 Seventieth Birthday Retrospective Art Exhibition, Nasional Museum Bloemfontein;
- 1980 Stefan Ampenberger lost use of his legs through illness, but continued active life and painting from a wheel-chair.

Art Exhibitions
Group-shows al over South Africa, including Bloemfontein Group exhibitions;
- 1964 Third Quad of South African Art;
- 1966 Rep Fest Art Exhibition, Pretoria; ‘The Bloemfontein Group’, South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town;
- 1967 One-man art exhibition, Port Elizabeth

Public Art Collections
South Africa Nasional Gallery, Cape Town; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley; AC White Art Gallery, Bloemfontein; Pretoria Art Museum.

Source
Berman, E. 1994. Art & Artists of South Africa . Southern Book Publishers.

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