Ursula Brodauf was born in Gruenhainichen, a small German town, near the Czech border, in 1926. An expressionist sculptor, her work balances light and shadow, yin and yang.  She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

When she was 14, Brodauf began a woodcarving apprenticeship with Emil Helbig, but she found the work repetitive and stated her desire to be a sculpture to her teacher.  Two years later she received a scholarship to study sculpture. In 1948, she arrived in West Berlin to study at the Academy of Art where Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, and Alexander Calder were visiting instructors.  The Academy of Art was the first art school to foster the expressionist school of art where her instructors were Klakow, Seltz, and VanVerk, who were all members of the Bauhaus School.

In 1950, Brodauf directed the design of the Colorphone Agfa Film Company’s stage sets.  She was traveling to Hollywood when she stopped in Salt Lake to visit a friend and decided to continue her artistic pursuits.  Duality (1989), a bronze, was awarded the Museum Purchase from the Springville Museum of Art in 1990.  Alter Ego and Freedom are other examples of her work.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah and information supplied by the artist.