Brigitte Niessner
Daughter of Franz Feuchtl. Musician and painter working under the name Sandy (also S. Niessner, S. Nies).
Brigitte Niessner, born on 23 January 1955 in Vienna, received a comprehensive artistic education in piano, classical and modern dance and art song in Vienna and Zurich.
There followed longer stays in France and Corsica, where she worked as a pianist and singer. For a time she lived in a monastery in Alsace, working there as an organist and translating some of the works of Teilhard de Chardin.
After several engagements as a dancer in Germany she finally returned to Vienna, where she met her later life partner Hubert Rathgeber, which fundamentally changed her life.
It was he who gave her security, calm and stability and led her to painting. With this new artistic expression she gave herself the painter’s name Sandy – or, in a variant close to her signature, S. Nies – under which she has worked ever since.
Paintings – predominantly gouache and mixed media on paper. Signed Sandy, S. Niessner or S. Nies.