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Barbel
Hische’s working principle of not painting at
an easel but on the floor instead results in
paintings characterised by metamorphoses of
a randomised, incomplete nature. Works of art
develop over a long period of time in the form
of the emergence of numerous layers. This is
a basic feature of the works of the artist –
layered paintings.
Painting in layers, repainting, rubbing paint
off and wiping, uncovering again and then covering
up again can be observed as a constant principle
in the work process of Barbel Hische’s works
of art. Not least of all thanks to the artist’s
feeling for the tone and the material properties
of the colours, to the alternation of thickly
applied or glaze-like areas of colour, to the
frequently transparent areas of colour which
make the colour spaces underneath visible or
vaguely perceptible, multi-layered areas of
visual experience gradually open up.
The artist’s areas of interest and key motifs
show the same continuity: the human figure,
the relationship between man and nature, symbolic
themes and the transience of all things.
This exhibition shows four large-format works
all of which depict female likenesses. They
all have the same title – “moment” and point
out to us what the artist is trying to impart:
the glance of those depicted.
The effect of recognition of portraits from
the history of art by Leonardo, Petrus Christus
or Ghirlandao is intentional. Barbel Hische
is interested in the enigmatic glances of the
ladies, some of whom are pondering, are absent
or are looking straight out of the painting.
What effect does a glance like this have on
one’s counterpart, who was the glance targeting
in the first place, were the women looking for
their counterpart and, indeed, were they allowed
to do so. As a reminder: all of the artists
were males! What draws one’s attention to the
paintings is the fact that the headgear worn
is austere. Was this constraint, an aesthetic
ideal of beauty, fashion or was it supposed
to signal that this particular lady was already
married. The artist transposes the diversity
of possible answers into the technical development
process by repeatedly smoothing over the undercoat
with new paint, adding layer after layer to
result in a relief-type of structure onto which
she then paints the images. Barbel Hische includes
ornaments as an extra and these somehow bear
reference to the period in which the women lived.
In this exhibition we see the painter and graphic
artist Barbel Hische, although she is at the
same time also a sculptor, with her works comprising
large-scale installations in public spaces.
The clarity of the objects in the artist’s works
– plastic objects and images frequently appear
– often stand in contrast to her ostensible
outward shapes.
It is the ambiguity that develops here that
attracts the artist: the variety of possibilities
for interpretation which beholders wish to quickly
encode and which nevertheless lends the paintings
and objects of art an enigmatic touch. The expressiveness
of the paintings comes from the inside; it is
intuition that brings them about and which in
the end gives them their outer appearance. Beholders
will also gain access to the works from the
inside – provided they give in to contemplation,
that is.
Barbel Hische was born in 1954, studied at the
College of Arts in Bremen in Germany and has
been freelancing since 1988. After completing
her studies and working in a studio in Bremen,
she has been working in her home town of Cloppenburg
since 1993 and also in her Berlin studio since
2004. Barbel Hische made her name with numerous
exhibitions throughout Germany and in other
European countries, mainly thanks to her installations
in public places.
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