Susanne Feinbaum

Susanne Feinbaum (May 14th 1958 - December 20th 1993) was an Austrian artist and musician. A pioneer of the Neo-Orphism painting movement, and an influential figure within the progressive, avant-garde and electronic music scenes, she is most notably remembered for her 1987 synth-pop hit "From Point and Line to Plane".

Early Life

Susanne Feinbaum was an only child born and educated in Vienna. It was a liberal and bohemian upbringing. Her grandmother was a former lover of Rilke, the ‘M.F.’ to whom "Mir zur Feier" ("To me Only Celebration") is dedicated. Her mother, Marlena Feinbaum (nee Schmeuker), was a professional concert pianist who later taught at the Vienna Conservatoire. Her father was the renowned Philology professor, and biographer of Jacob Grimm, Gunter Feinbaum.

From a young age it became apparent that Feinbaum was a synesthete. In "Zu Susanne" she recalls how:

"The littlest of happenings could move me to extremes of joy and pain, certain combinations of colour or noise . . . One of my earliest memories is that of an overflowing chrome pipe (which I must have subconsciously viewed both as an object and an action), and the resulting euphoria produced by this – so great that it caused me to weep." [1]

Feinbaum’s parents saw this neurological condition as a gift, rather than a handicap however and, keen to nurture their daughter’s "hidden creative sense" [2] , she was enrolled in the Schwarzwaldshule, Herrengasse. The school, founded by the reformist educator Eugenie Schwarzwald, was one of Austria’s first educational institutes for girls, with a strong emphasis on languages and the arts. School reports portray Susanne as a polite, academically high-achieving student with an "emotional response to music". [3]

Düsseldorf

Upon finishing her studies at the Schwarzwaldshule, Feinbaum was accepted on the painting program at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and moved to Germany. Dieter Krieg, who became head of the department in 1978, encouraged Feinbaum to pursue her ‘soundscape-oils’. So high was his regard for these pieces that he showed them alongside his own work in several acclaimed exhibitions even though Feinbaum was still a student at the time. The paintings from this period are often cited as a point of reference for many post-modern artists, including the Danish painter Tal R:

"I was looking for a kind of unhygienic minimalism, a wild minimalism without puritanism, and so I began to look again at Susanne Feinbaum. It would be fair to say her Düsseldorf works were the starting point for the 'Lords of Kolbojnik', series. One could perhaps say they were their end point too." [4]

It was also during her time in Kunstakademie, that Feinbaum first became acquainted with electronic group Der Plan, seen by many as a marked turning point in her career. After being introduced to Kai Horn at a Jazz concert they had both been forced to attend, the two struck up an informal discussion about the concept of New German Wave music, one of the results of which was that Susanne purchased a synthesizer with the intention of forming a band. [5]

The Britta Shuntta EP

After graduating from the Kunstakademie Feinbaum, and her then boyfriend Klaus Wernig of the musique concrète band Schwarz zu Schwarz, moved to the former West Berlin in order to be part of what they considered the "centre of the world’s new music" [6.] Despite continuing to produce artworks for record sleeves and performances Feinbaum’s primary focus was now music, and in 1985 she released "The Britta Shuntta EP".

"The Britta Shuntta EP", comprised of six ‘compositions’ which emphasized the use of sustained sounds, over which Susanne spoke softly, often repeating a single word or sentence several times. Although the EP appealed to a primarily niche market it attracted a certain amount of critical acclaim, especially among UK drone bands. Or in the words of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith:

"All those fucking shoegazing, space rock bands kicking around the midlands thinking they were fucking Spaceman 3. I mean even Peter Kembler didn't really think he was Peter Kembler or Johnny Spaceman or whatever. He thought he was Susanne fucking Feinbaum. Susanne Feinbaum doing shite drugs with a shite haircut. As if. Feinbaum was a poet. You wouldn't catch her trailing round some Northampton dive saying lets do a cover of The Troggs." [7]

From Point and Line to Plane

A year after the release of "Britta Shuntta" Feinbaum split, somewhat acrimoniously, from Wernig. Keen to distance herself from the Berlin scene, she accepted an invitation to visit a friend she had made while touring, Catherine Ringer of Les Rita Mitsouko, in Paris. Six months later she returned to her apartment in Kreuzberg with a new, 'pop' sensibility, and a completed album - "From Point and Line to Plane".

Lyrically the new work, although mainly in English as oppose to German, was not unlike" Britta Shuntta". The title track for instance, explored the concept of Kandinsky’s path to abstraction in Feinbaum’s typically esoteric style, and was produced by the legendary sound engineer Phoebus Blank. Yet other elements provoked outrage amongst the so-called avant-garde:

"The music press' response was predominantly an aggressive one. I remember one journalist in particular, who kept on using the word 'conservative'. 'To sing in English - how conservative'. 'Four four time - how conservative'. He seemed to have no concept of where I was coming from. Of my background, my experiments. Yes four four time is conservative, but within the context of my music, my art even, radically so." [8]

A Return to Painting

In spite of "From Point and Line to Plane" becoming a hit Feinbaum was unhappy with her newfound success and in 1989 made the decision to give up music and move back to Düsseldorf. It was here that she produced the oxidisation paintings, a series of large-scale works based on the sound and texture of lead, one of which now hangs in the Liverpool Tate.

She remained in Düsseldorf until her premature death in a road accident at the age of thirty-five.

References

1 "Zu Susanne", Goldstein, Gerhard, The MIT Press, Masachusses, 1993. p.11 2 "Zu Susanne", Goldstein, Gerhard, The MIT Press, Masachusses, 1993. p.23

3 "Zu Susanne", Goldstein, Gerhard, The MIT Press, Masachusses, 1993. p.27

4 "Tal R: Lords of Kolbojnik", Victoria Miro Gallery, London, 2002. p3

5 "Neue Deutsche Welle", Fenstermecker, Jacob, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1995. p25-28

6 "Neue Deutsche Welle", Fenstermecker, Jacob, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1995. p22

7 "Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith", Smith, Mark E., Viking, London, 2008. p104

8 "Zu Susanne", Goldstein, Gerhard, The MIT Press, Masachusses, 1993. p.162