Women Artists
(1880 - 1980)
Signature
Not signed
She attended the OMIKE School of Painting, then from 1924 she studied at the School of Industrial Drawing, and later at the School of Applied Arts, where she studied textiles. At the College of Fine Arts she qualified as a drawing teacher under the tutelage of István Groh, Gyula Kasz, Adolf Fényes, Oszkár Glatz and István Réti. In 1936 she was an assistant to Vilmos Aba-Novák. She studied in Austria and Italy. From 1934 she was a member of the Group of Socialist Artists. Between 1937-40 she worked as a textile designer, then became a designer in a paper factory. In 1940 and 1943 she participated in exhibitions organised by the OMIKE Art Action. In 1946 she was a lecturer in the cultural policy department of the town hall. In 1947-49 she worked at the Budapest Picture Gallery; in 1950-51 at the New Hungarian Picture Gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts, and later at the Hungarian National Gallery. From 1957 to 1970 she was head of the Graphic Arts Department.
Oelmacher's Portrait of a Young Girl shows the influence of Aba-Novák and the Roman School, which she easily combined with her realistic style, which avoids detail and favours compact, large surfaces. This classicism continues the tradition of the neoclassicism of the Szőnyi circle in the 1920s, but is already linked to the Italianate neoclassicism of the 1930s. Judging by her uniform, the girl is presumably a student. Oelmacher emphasises the plastic effect of colour and, in imitating Renaissance portraits, uses their compositional characteristics: three-quarter profile with a neutral (burgundy) background in a signalling style.