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until 30.07. | #3714ARTatBerlin | Köppe Contemporary presents the exhibition Leben – liebe – leidenschaft by the artist Barbara Quandt from 28 June 2022 (vernissage: 24.06.).
BARBARA QUANDT
What can be said about the artist Barbara Quandt? Perhaps that she grew up in the rubble city of Berlin. That she never fixed her visual language. That she switched in her painting from realism to abstract and back again. That she experimented a lot and always tried out new visual languages, especially in her works on paper, and that her art nevertheless developed – especially in the 1980s in Berlin and New York – an independence that is characteristic of the Berlin artist. A variety of means of expression, acrylic and oil painting, mixed techniques on paper, watercolours, drawings, prints and also stage designs characterise her oeuvre.
She studied with the “father of the new savages”, Karl Horst Hödicke (1970-1976), in the same class as Salomé. But she does not want to be placed in the context of the new savages. But she is already part of the tradition of figurative painting. Her early work is still strongly influenced by Hödicke’s critical realism. Her socially critical commitment is evident, for example, in existential portraits of young people as well as in Berlin milieu studies and urban landscape motifs that reflect the melancholy and monotony of everyday life in the big city.
Herzdame – 1984, 200 x 170 cm Acrylic on nettle
She is strongly influenced by London’s punk rock scene. Her paintings become more critical and political already in the 70s. She addresses conventions, hypocritical moral concepts and conformity. Images that revolve around the theme of the female body and sexuality occupy an important complex early on. This also includes her early body images and photo actions. Her self-portraits and her flirting with her own self are a constant. In art, as in love, she lives herself out freely and passionately. Her way of life corresponds to her painting style – expressive, fast-paced and passionate.
Although she lives in Berlin, she cannot really be located. She is a traveller who is as enthusiastic as she is courageous. Not only many of her paintings speak of this, but especially her autobiography (“Tell me what is art”, Kerber Verlag, 2016), in which she describes herself as a painter of people and also gives an insight into how much travel experiences and travel impressions have helped to shape her work.
Protect me – 2022, Acrylic on nettle, 195 x 170 cm
Her own experiences, fleeting moments, feelings of happiness and longing, togetherness and loss, impressions from journeys around the world as well as the artistic examination of the theme of women in society are mixed in pictures that are often powerfully heightened in form and colour to the point of intoxication.
Many of her themes reflect Barbara Quandt’s enthusiasm for life, for art, for love, for music and dance. In many of her pictures, it seems, there is also a piece of herself. Her aesthetic concept testifies to an irrepressible hunger for experience and, with its carefree esprit, resists any restriction of creative thinking and any formal aestheticism.
Barbara Quandt | Mädchen mit Schleife – 1984, Acrylic on nettle, 110 x 100 cm
Opening weekend
Saturday, 25 June 2022 02:00 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.
Sunday, 26 June 2022 12:00 p.m. – 04:00 p.m.
Vernissage: Friday, 24 June 2022, 07:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Tuesday, 28 June 2022 until Saturday, 30 July 2022
to the gallery
Image cover: Barbara Quandt | Wie Vögel ohne Richtung – 1991, Oil on Canvas, 190 x 170 cm
Exhibition Barbara Quandt – Köppe Contemporary | Zeitgenössische Kunst | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Galerien Berlin | ART at Berlin
