Wolfgang Ritschel

Art from the Heart

Dr. Wolfgang A. Ritschel worked closely with Behringer-Crawford Museum since the first freshART. Born in Austria, Dr. Ritschel served as a teaching physician and was a widely-acclaimed researcher at the UC College of Medicine. His seminal work in enhanced color perception at high altitudes resulted in the viviid colors seen in many of his paintings.

Wolfgang and his wife, Dr. Ingrid Ritschel, adopted BCM as a very special place and have supported it in many ways. When Wolfgang was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Wolfgang and Ingrid proposed a new category for freshART, called "Art From The Heart," and pledged 100 of Wolfgang's life retrospective works, an extremely valuable collection, as a donation to the museum with the stipulation that 50 be set aside, with one to be sold at freshART each year to benefit the museum.