User:ClaudioReis/Linda Klarfeld

Linda Klarfeld
Linda Klarfeld is recognised as one of Australia’s leading sculptors. Adventurer and Entrepreneur and local identity Dick Smith was her first Patron. Since the age of 14 Linda has been a sculptor. Her sculpture of heart surgeon Dr Victor Chang was unveiled by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in front of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in 2008. In the same year George Cardinal Pell Arhbishop of Sydney unveiled Linda’s sculpture of Blessed Mary MacKillop which sits near MacKillop’s tomb in North Sydney. Her work is in the Kerry Stokes Collection as well as the collections of many of Australia’s leading business identities and her statues of ballerina's adorn the offices of the Australian Ballet. Linda has created public monuments all over Australia. She has created monuments to Cricketers Keith Miller and Bill Woodfull, and St Kilda footballer Neil Roberts for Melbourne High School and a statue of Rugby League footballer Pedro Gallagher for the Gold Coast. Her sculptures of graduating students welcome people outside the Manly International School of Management and Macquarie University and in 2009 her project “Expressions of Love” a collection of 15 life size bronze sculptures which show the love a grandmother feels for her grandchildren, will be unveiled at the Hunter Valley Gardens. Linda spent over 6 years working on the life size bronze sculptures. Linda started her career early by making prototypes for toys and souvenir spoons, and in a factory which churned out miniature statues of Don Bradman. Underground in the basement of her parent’s home, Linda learned anatomy tought herself to carve in stone. She then went to Europe to study at a Stone Sculptor’s school in Horice, Czech Republic.

She studied in Sydney, Prague and New York focusing on the time honoured techniques of creating bronze sculptures. Putting as much emphasis on the trade of sculpting as on the need for self expression and communication. Linda assisted a Technician who worked on the restoration on the Statue of Liberty and with sculptor Kurt Gebauer in Prague who lived next door to Vaclav Havel the then President of the Czech Republic. The earliest example of a sculpture made by Linda Klarfeld is a self portrait she created in ceramic at the age of 7. Earlier than that, at the age of four there is a record of her work having been selected for a nation wide exhibition, held in Prague Castle of work by gifted children in Czechoslovakia. This exhibition marked a significant change in her life because it is at this time that she and her parents escaped communist rule and became Australian Citizens. On arrival in Australia, despite being penniless immigrants, Linda’s family fostered her talent and she attended regular art classes and private lessons. At age 14 her vocation as a sculptor was set in stone and she became an apprentice to a professional sculptor.

Linda Klarfeld’s work is a unique extension of the tradition that Rodin pioneered. Powerful in emotion and in expression, engaging and uplifting. The size and scope of her sculptures, often described as courageous, stride forth with determination while her small sculptures are more than merely representational or ornamental. Linda uses emotion to create an instant connection between the viewer and subject. The viewer can understand and sympathise with the subject becoming involved, feeling remorse or joy, pleasure or pain. Her sculptures also have a freedom of movement. She manages to capture moments of stillness, where a figure was obviously moving but then pauses momentarily. But Linda chooses her moment differently: she captures more than the moment of stillness – she preserves the motion that leads to it. Klarfeld’s work instantly communicates what is basic to human nature. For that reason, exhibitions of her sculptures are both powerful and welcoming. She has received numerous public commissions, subjects ranging from religion, sport, dance, equestrian statues and has been asked to create a number of site specific works for public and private projects.