Waltraude Stehwien

This year, two puppet theater museums, one in Dresden (former East) and one in Munich (former West) are collaborating on a combined puppetry exhibit for 2016. Waltraude Stehwien has decided to make a donation of several puppets to the Dresden museum, as the interest in hers and her father’s story continues to grow. Theirs is a long story of the short lived travelling marionette theater under communist rule, plus the adventures of owning a successful hand puppet theater for many years before that. This smaller theater travelled throughout eastern Europe in the 1930s, and performed most often in central Germany and Austria.

These two marionettes from the play Dr. Faustus, one the happy 'Hans Wurst' and the other, the obviously very evil 'Die Pest' are the ones Oskar Barthold helped 'escape' confiscation.

About the Artist

Waltraude Stehwien is a German born artist whose first career path was learning the ancient art of puppetry in her father's marionette theatre. Her studies in stage design and graphic arts at the art academy in Halle, Germany trained her to switch readily between a two and three dimensional workspace.

After retirement from a varied career in puppetry and graphic arts, Waltraude returned to her love of another unique art, that of scissor cutting, or the German Scherenschnitt. (Schere = Scissor, Schnitt = Cut).

She has created a large variety of design, illustrations and even logos using this method, and is regularly called upon to give workshops in this unique art form.

Most recently, she has challenged herself to explore the beauty and vastness of the prairie and other Canadian landscapes. The linear perspectives and the often stark contrasts of winter scenes have inspired Waltraude to bring these sometimes intense feelings to the viewer with her scissors and a single sheet of black specialty paper.