"The
artist is always and forever painting only one thing
̶
a self-portrait."
William
Carlos Williams
Martina
Rall is a designer, artist, photographer and author. She was born and she currently
lives in Tübingen/Germany.
After school Martina studied Italian and
German Literature and Language at the Universities of Tübingen and Parma/Italy
(Master of Arts in 1991) and later on Fine Arts at the Academy
of
Arts in Nürtingen.
In
the early 90’s she worked as a freelance journalist for the “Riviera Côte
d’Azur Zeitung” (The Riviera Times) and since 1994 she is working as a
freelance graphic designer. She started doing publicities for German
and international companies. Later on she focussed on fine arts and in
creating designs for paperproducts, tableware, bedclothes and watches for
the national and international market.
Since
1998 Martina is a member of the "Alliance of German Designers".
In 2009 Martina started with her mixed
media series of self-portraits “Being Marilyn Monroe”, figuring
herself as modern day icons like Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo, Audrey
Hepburn, Maria Callas, Romy Schneider, Michael Jackson and at least Grace
Kelly.
“My
self-portraits series was born due to a range of coincidences: first of
all with a portrait of Romy Schneider. My mother, watching it, seriously
thought that it was me. Second, a friend, watching my paintings, said that
all these paintings were me. And third, reading the quotation of the
American poet William Carlos Williams: «The
artist is always and forever painting only one thing: a self-portrait.»,
noticed after being portrayed by an Italian painter.
̶
I really
don’t believe in coincidences, so I immediately knew that I had to do
self-portraits!”
Martina’s
passion for portraying creative working people leads from her
self-portraits to a second series, the photo portraits of “Artists in
Action”. In 2010 she started with the artist portrait of Mirella Leone,
a very expressive Italian soprano singer. In 2011 she realized a triptych photocollage of
Karl Friedrich, Prince of
Hohenzollern, a passionate German jazz musician known as
"Charly" and in 2012 she portrayed the German bestselling author Peter Prange.
Currently she is working on an artist portrait of the Swiss actor Roland
Koch: In 2013 she photographed him in the role of commissioner Matteo
Lüthi on film set in Konstanz,
during the filming of the popular German crime series "Tatort",
in 2014 she portrayed him as a theater director during rehearsals at the
Lokremise St. Gallen and in 2015 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where Koch
is part of the ensemble since 1999. Last year Martina portrayed the US
American conductor Myron Romanul during orchestra rehearsals in Munich
with the Münchner Symphoniker and at the premiere of "All we love about
Shakespeare" with the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse in Mulhouse/France.
“I absolutely want to
continue this series, portraying artists at work, focussing on the
creative process and the magic moment in which art and the artist merge into one.”
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