Introduction

DSCN9259Raja Schwahn-Reichmann’s realm is that of fauns and angels, satyrs and nymphs, imps, catamites and courtesans. Since many years she is campaining for a renaissance of ancient bacchanals and mysteries as well as baroque festivities in Vienna, as they were once cultivated in this city.

The paintress, illustrator and sculptress, trained as restorer and art historian, is also passionate collector of traditional and period costumes. She creates installations that bring supposedly distant worlds, like the ancient world and the baroque, close to the twenty-first century. Raja Schwahn-Reichmann has created outdoor dining areas and private homes, theater stages and interventions in gardens, organized Dionysian festivals in urban and rural areas with the help of figurative, representational painting, whether in Prince Eugenes country residence Schloss Hof, in a village on the Italian Riviera or in Vienna’s baroque park Augarten, where she was instrumental in a creative protest against the obstruction. She is closely linked to the Vienna Life Ball for years. Among others she was awarded the Italian art prize “Premio Mantegna” for her picturesque lifework in 2009.