Virginia Glasmacher
2014: Virginia Glasmacher, >Abstract Color Landscapes<, painting
On first encountering the paintings of Virginia Glasmacher, one believes that the artist indulges in fascinating flurries of color. This impression is almost meaningless. It in no way characterizes her paintings. And yet: it is conceivable that viewers will become enraptured by the color painting at first glance, without thinking about the composition or the choice of subject and motif. In any case, this is the right way to enter the picture and explore the color fields from there.
View, Magenta-Coelin, acrylic on canvas, 190x240 cm, 2010
Color layering, cadmium red-cadmium yellow, acrylic on canvas, 115x100 cm, 2010
The one or other picture wanderer might well discover a landscape that is not necessarily compatible with familiar landscape accessories. Yet associations with reality are virtually forced upon them: Green meadows, divided by yellow paths, heading towards a red forest, with blue waters flowing from a rocky grotto to the side. A red forest? Why not?
Restrained red, acrylic on canvas, 120x135 cm, 2008
Waters shrouded in mist, reflecting distant gray poplars - an outrageously romantic sunset over an azure Mediterranean sea seen from a rocky coast ... There are no limits to the associations, and suddenly you feel transported to a strange but oh-so-promising world.
Thanks to her stupendous artistic skills and her sure sense of color, Virginia Glasmacher has the gift of filling her compositions with emotion. She lures visitors into her magical castle, opens the high windows and lets them look out into her landscapes.
Art historian Antje Lechleiter attempts to familiarize the audience with the artist's work. Her explanations revolve around, among other things, the sophisticated technique of the layers of paint, which are distributed over large compositions.
Curator Beate Hill-Kalusche (right) and artist Virginia Glasmacher (left) listen to the art historian's explanations.
The attic floor has been transformed. Visitors are immersed in worlds of color that present themselves as fantasy landscapes. Everyone is invited to find their own dream landscape in the painting.
The layers of color suggest depth, as if the artist wanted to create a painted relief, or even more, a sculpture-painting.
Glasmacher's paintings do not always have to convey cheerfulness - they also tend to evoke a melancholy mood at times. Perhaps the title of the painting, "Verhaltenes Rot", refers to this.
Vita
- Born 1969 in Richmond, Virginia/USA.
- 1989-1993 Studied painting and semiotics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island/USA and art history at New York University.
- 2001 Attended the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg.
- Studied in the painting class of Zhou Brothers.
- Lives and works in Freiburg.