About
Jeanne Aurel-Schneider
Jeanne Aurel-Schneider exhibited her paintings and drawings largely in California and in France, and globally in New Zealand, Singapore and China. Her work evolved, but was always a synthesis of her experiences and a profound respect for the integrity of her materials, which were highly varied; from her own wet into wet watercolor technique, to fine graphite work on paper, to the garment as image, to the garment as media, to the garment as an element inside her paper-making, to painting on silk and making wearable art garments, to painting on unstretched canvases.
Jeanne was on the forefront of the women's liberation movement while maintaining her family life with her husband and 4 children by age 30. At 35 she resumed her academic study of art at San Jose State University and joined the protests on campus in the early 1970's. She completed her Master of Arts in painting at SJSU in 1974 and launched fully into her career making art and teaching classes in her home to adults and children.
In 1976, after years of personal research, Jeanne founded the San Jose Museum of Art School under the Director, Albert G. Dixon, Jr. She taught and directed the school until 1980. The San Jose Museum of Art School is still an active and vibrant part of the museum today.
Jeanne was very active in the larger San Jose and San Francisco Bay Area art community. She and her husband, Donald, circled the globe many times visiting their children and grandchildren and living half the year in their home in the Southwest of France. This home was situated near the descendants of Jeanne's family that remained in France while her parents emigrated to San Francisco in 1907 and 1909.
This broad exposure to the arts globally and the need to transport her work greatly influenced her work in format and point of view. Jeanne's later work was done on unstretched linen and on paper, which were more easily transported. Jeanne created her main bodies of work during the years 1970 to 2013, although she began drawing and painting as a child in the 1930's. Jeanne's production of work never wavered, even as she found herself bed ridden with an injured back -- as we remember Frida Kahlo did -- when she drew exquisitely evocative pencil drawings using her favorite dish towels as models. Jeanne broke through the barrier keeping textile based work's classification as "craft" by using her materials as a fine artist. She also was an early entrant into California's wearable art movement of the early 1980's that continues into current times.
Jeanne constantly explored, integrated, and delved into the mysteries of the art process itself in relationship to materials, old and new, and her own spiritual values. She was always searching. Her search led her to illustrate with her work the twelve chapters of Ecclesiastes - from the Old Testament - for a DVD produced by the Foundation de La Bible, L'Humanite & Patrimoine, which was narrated by the renowned French stage actor, Sami Frey. This was presented in France and the US.
Brief Biography
Career details...
