Born in Vianden, Yola Reding grew up in Luxembourg City. Her father and grandfather occasionally painted in their spare time. As a young girl, she regularly took art lessons from painters Josy and Carine Meyers, whose main genre was flower still lifes. Reding’s cousin, the Luxembourg painter Coryse Kieffer, accompanied her occasionally. At high school, Reding was encouraged to work in the artistic field. With her family’s support, Reding was one of very few women to pursue an academic education in art immediately after the war. Accordingly, she studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, France, from 1946 to 1948, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1948 and at the Parisian Académie Julian the year after. In Paris, Reding frequently visited the studio of Luxembourg sculptor Auguste Trémont and spent a year in the studio of French painter Jean Souverbie (1891-1981). From 1950 to 1951, she pursued her studies at Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. 30 years later, in 1982, Reding trained as an art restorer at Palazzo Spinelli in Florence. She further visited the Akademie Salzburg during the summers of 1980 and 1983. In Salzburg, she also trained with Austrian sculptor Wander Bertoni (1925-2019). Moreover, from 1972 onwards, Reding worked as an art teacher at École des Arts et Metiers in Luxembourg for about ten years and also gave classes to adults at the Centre pour la promotion des arts (CEPA).

Reding married in 1951 and had two children. Luxembourg artist Isabelle Lutz is Reding’s niece.

Reding mainly paints in gouache, oil and pastel, yet also creates prints. The abstract forms and gestural brushstrokes have resulted in her works being classed as belonging to the styles of lyrical and geometrical abstraction. In the course of her artistic development, a remarkable effort to purify the pictorial elements prevailed. In other words, structure, rhythm and composition gradually became the main themes of her art, eliminating all secondary elements (Walentiny). The artist explored the inherent characteristics of her chosen techniques. At the end of the 1970s, her paintings became more expressionistic and loaded with emotions. The themes of melancholy, abandonment, but also hope were interpreted repeatedly in her works (e. g. Vermast). While stripes made an early appearance in her artistic repertoire, it was around 2006 that the artist truly heightened their significance. She explored various iterations and manifestations of stripes, ranging from painting them to cutting photographs or her own artworks into stripes and integrating them as collages into new compositions. At times, the stripes transcend the borders of the picture frame.

Reding’s works have been shown in about 20 solo exhibitions, above all in Luxembourg galleries. Since 1950, she has exhibited in over 20 Salons du Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL). Her works have been displayed in a number of exhibitions aiming at providing an overview of Luxembourg art. Examples are the shows 40 Künstler aus Luxembourg, organised in Cologne in 1988, or Art au Luxembourg at the European Centre in Luxembourg in 1991. She further participated in international exhibitions in Tokyo, Barcelona, Jerusalem, Oostende, and Italy.

Reding was friends with many artists in Luxembourg and abroad, such as Josette Mortier (1928-1976), Ben Heyart, Roger Bertemes, Camille Croat or Charles Kohl, Germaine Hoffmann  was one of Reding’s students at CEPA.

Her works are in the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Art in Luxembourg (MNAHA) and the Metropolitan Museum Tokyo, amongst others.

In 1950, the painter became a member of the CAL, which honored her as its eldest member in their 2020 annual salon.

Reding was awarded the Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe in 1963. In 1974 and 2003, she resided as an artist at the Parisian Cité Internationale des Arts. She further received the International Art Prize from the Metropolitan Museum Toyko in 1979, the Prix Peinture in Sarrguemines in 1992, the Miniature Art Prize in Stockholm in 1997, the Certificate of Merit in Israel-Venice in 1998 and the Prix Femina in 2000.

Her art has mainly been discussed in the press so far and less in scholarly literature. While, in 1959, critic Jos Walentiny noted that her work was far from a truly original artistic innovation, art historian Nathalie Becker claimed that Reding was a pioneer in abstract painting in her article from 2017. In the same year, artist and journalist François Besch argued that Reding was one of the most renowned and internationally famous Luxembourg artists (16). Moreover, interpretations about sobriety and severity in Reding’s paintings (highlighted e.g. by the author m.g. in 1964), can be contrasted to those praising the artist’s qualities as a colourist and her ability to convey great sensitivity (e.g. author blg in 1976). Vesna Andonovic's 2012 article seems to bring these somewhat conflicting interpretations together when the cultural journalist notes that Reding creates impactful narratives with the simplest of means (112). Furthermore, Reding’s art has been compared to that of French abstract painter Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) (f.). In fact, in 1964, author f. writes: “if we evoke Nicolas de Staël, it is not to reproach the artist for allowing herself to be influenced by this great painter, all the more so because she manages to assimilate this way of working. (…) In Madame Reding's work, the feminine temperament rounds off the angles of this harshness, makes the violence more rhythmic. [She favours] gentleness (…).”

While Reding’s geometric works from before the 1970s and their associated sobriety have received most of the critics’ attention, a considerable part of her oeuvre shows organic shapes that exude a sense of fluidity and less rigidity. Moreover, the endless variations of lines, stripes and surfaces, suggest a playful lightness to her art and add a dynamic dimension to her oeuvre.

Works cited

Andonovic, Vesna. "’To See a World in a Grain of Sand...’: Yola Reding, Die Freiheit Der Gefühlten Malerei." Nos Cahiers : Lëtzebuerger Zäitschrëft Fir Kultur 2 (2012): P. 105-112 Print.

Bech, François. « Harmonie der Kontraste. ‘Lyrisme structuré’ Yola Reding, Manfred Freitag und Werner Ewers bei ‚mediArt‘.“ Tageblatt 21.02.2017: 16. Print.

Becker, Nathalie. "Yola Reding, une grande figure de l'art luxembourgeois: A 90 ans, elle n'a rien perdu de sa passion." Luxemburger Wort 31.03.2017. Web. Accessed 27.10.2020.

blg. "Au Centre Culturel Français. Yola Mersch-Reding et Wenzel Profant. Deux anciens résidents de la Cité Internationale des Arts à Paris." Luxemburger Wort 13.01.1976: unknown.

f. "Galerie Paul Brück: Yola Reding et Ben Heyard." Tageblatt 16.01.1964 or 18.01.1964: unknown.

m.g. "Galerie Paul Bruck, Luxembourg: Yola Reding - Ben Heyart." Journal 25.01.1964: unknown.

Walentiny, Jos. „Zu einer Kunstausstellung in der Galerie ‚le Studio‘.“ Luxemburger Wort 07.01.1961: unknown.