Tahedl, Ernestine (RCA)

Ernestine Tahedl’s career spans a sixty year time period and encompasses a variety of media and subject matter.  Born in Austria, Tahedl received a Master’s degree in graphic art from the University of Applied Art in Vienna in 1961. She worked closely with her father, the established Austrian artist Prof. Heinrich Tahedl, on several glass commissions until she immigrated to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1963.

Ernestine Tahedl was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1977 and the Ontario Society of Artists in 1984. She received the Governor General’s Canada 125th Anniversary Medal in 1993. Additional awards include: 2000 Arts and Letters Award from the Arts and Letters club, Toronto, 2002 the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, 2015 the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Golden Decoration of Honour for  services to the Republic of Austria in 2017.

Her works are shown nationally and internationally and are represented in private and public collections in Canada and abroad. A Retrospective Exhibition of her work was held in Austria in october 2012 and continued as a travelling exhibition to Zagreb, and Bratislava to 2014.

In 2016 her work with her father’s work was shown in a large exhibition in the Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria under the title: Heinrich Tahedl / Ernestine Tahedl Versammelte Werke.

2016, 9 Mosaic panels by Ernestine Tahedl commissioned 1965 were reclaimed from the Canada Post office formerly on site are now part of the new Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton Alberta

The “Bilderzyklus Anton Bruckner” was shown in the Festsaal of the Bishops Palace, Linz, Upper Austria from 2018 to 2019. 2022, an exhibition inspired by the Canadian landscape , titled Canada Series was held in Vienna on the occasion of the 70- year anniversary of bilateral relations between Austria and Canada.

She has a deep-rooted connection to Edmonton, where her career in Canada began.  She is responsible for several public art installations in Edmonton, most notably the mosaics in front of the new Royal Alberta Museum.

Biography/ CV

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