In Brazil, Ostrower began work as a secretary while studying art at the Fine Arts Association. Ostrower spoke five different languages; German, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1946, she attended design classes at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation’s Brazilian Society of Fine and Graphic Arts, where she studied metal and wood engraving, and art history. She had many authority figures and tutors throughout this time such as Axel Leskoschek, Tomás Santa Rosa, Carlos Oswald and Anna Levy. In 1955, Ostrower spent a year in New York through a Fulbright Scholarship, engraving under the tutelage of Stanley Hayter. She had many group and solo exhibitions throughout her career, such as the Pan-American Union in Washington in 1955, the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum in 1957, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1959, and the Chicago Fine Arts Institute in 1960 (Falbel).

 

In 1941, Ostrower married marxist activist Heinz Ostrower, who both became citizens of Brazil. They had a son named Carl Robert, who was born in 1949, and a daughter named Anna Leonor who was born in 1952. Fayga Ostrower died on September 13, 2001, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2002, the Fayga Ostrower Institute was founded in Rio de Janeiro in memory of Ostrower. The Institute shows her works and documents, and is also a school that provides creative, fine art and interdisciplinary study. Fayga Ostrower’s works are to be found in many museums throughout the world, among them are the Modern Art Museums in Rio de Janeiro and New York, the Fine Arts Museum in Philadelphia, the Contemporary Art Museum in São Paulo, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Albertina Museum in Vienna (Pluta).

Even though the style of abstract was looked down upon, Fayga did not back down on her decision. In 1954, which was a very important year for Ostrower, she held her first abstract individual exhibition and started teaching art theory at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio. Ostrower was connected to the idea of expressionism, but contemplated what that meant in a different context like Brazil, with its specific landscape, light, colour and abstract thinking (Poppel).

In Epiphany, the eye goes directly towards the centre of the painting, at the large cyan space and light lime and amber lines. The colours, contrast, and value that Ostrower chose make the painting seem as if it was burned. The texture of the lines look charred, which created a burning paper effect, and reveals a smooth ocean-like background underneath. The painting is very abstract and open for a lot of interpretation. Ostrower loved that idea, and wanted to create art that involved a discussion. Fayga Ostrower also argued that art was a universal and vital language for humans. She was very perturbed that it became an elitist demonstration and an object that most considered a luxury (Almeida). She once said in an interview: 

She wanted to create the beauty that she mentioned for everyone, and chose to make her paintings, including Epiphany, an object that was always seen as beautiful. You can now go to faygaostrower.org.br/a-artista/biografia-resumida and see images of all her artwork free of charge.

Falbel, Anat and Nachman Falbel. “Fayga Ostrower.” Jewish Women's Archive, 27 Feb. 2009, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ostrower-fayga.

“Fayga Ostrower.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayga_Ostrower.

National Gallery of Art. “Fayga Ostrower: Brazilian, 1920 - 2001.” Artist Info, 2020, www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.5141.html. 

Pluta, Aleksandra. “Fayga Perla Ostrower.” Translated by Zuzanna Wisniewska, Culture.pl, Sept. 2015, culture.pl/en/artist/fayga-perla-ostrower.

Poppel, Sarah. “All Creative Being: Interview with Anna Bella Geiger.” Artl@s Bulletin, vol. 3, no. Issue 2 Highways of the South: Latin American Art Networks, 2014, pp. 98–109, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=artlas.

“Página Inicial.” Translated by Hannah Latimer, Instituto Fayga Ostrower, 2002, faygaostrower.org.br/a-artista/biografia-resumida.