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Martha Grünenwaldt

Martha Grünenwaldt, born in 1910 in Hamme-Mille in the town of Beauvechain, in Walloon Brabant, Belgium, and died in Mouscron on March 23, 2008, is an Art Brut artist.

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Martha Grünenwaldt spent her childhood playing the violin to accompany her father, a traveling musician, and hardly ever attended school. Married at twenty-three to a musician, she worked in a factory until the birth of her daughter. After four years of marriage, she leaves home with her child and leads a wandering life, playing the violin on cafe terraces. But in 1940, her husband took back custody of their daughter. Martha Grünenwaldt finds a job as a servant in a castle, where she is forbidden to touch her instrument. In 1968, his daughter offered to move in with her.

 

It was not until the age of seventy-one that she began to draw. Often working on the backs of posters and salvaged wallpapers, she exclusively depicts female figures that turn into flowers and animals.

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Her work can be seen in several public and private collections such as the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, in LaM, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, the collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, France, and the collection Eternod & Mermod, Switzerland.