INTO THE LIGHT
A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Seychelles
An exhibition of recent work by La Digue artist Birgitt Lubkemann.
This exhibition of new paintings by Birgitt Lubkemann, which will open on November 8th 2024 and run until the end of the calendar year, charts a personal journey undertaken mostly in Germany during the last two years.
During this period the artist supported her husband during a time of critical illness. Her paintings record the journey made from a period when her husband was given a terminal diagnosis, through intensive treatment, and finally to a point of full recovery, which is thankfully the present position. If we could present these works sequentially and at high speed in the order in which they were created we would experience a kind of awakening of technicolour and an acceleration of illumination, as if we were in a dark corridor and suddenly opened a door into a brightly lit room. Collectively the paintings express the movement from fear to recovery.
The exhibition title reflects upon this process, with the colours and compositions of the (almost 200) paintings recording the initial anguish and later joy as the couple moved from darkness ‘into the light’.
Since returning to Seychelles last month additional works have been made on La Digue, specifically two large format pieces made specifically for this exhibition which will complement the invariably compressed slabs of colour which will form the bulk of this show – the third in the series of contemporary art exhibitions presented at the gallery since its reopening earlier this year. These two larger works will be derived from body prints made by the artist, her husband, and the German therapist who treated him during the illness.
Birgitt Lubkemann, in common with many serious painters, chronicles her life through the compositions she makes and exhibits, and like all human beings Lubkemann’s life navigates an uneven course, part proactive and part reactive. If we study these new paintings in comparison with works from the early 2000s, we can see that relatively simple and bright organic compositions – the kind exhibited as recently as 2020 at the Eden Art Space Gallery, have now given way to smaller but more intensely layered paintings. These form the crux of the forthcoming exhibition.
But there is another essential component in this series apart from the conversion of the artist’s life experiences into painted forms. Nature is present and represented in all of its fantastic beauty, and so we observe human life, ever changing and wrapped in a natural world which is also in a state of constant flux.
Unlike many artists producing abstract paintings, Birgitt Lubkemann titles her work – lyrically and poetically. Sometimes groups of compositions are commonly titled; such is the case with ‘The River Series’, ‘First Steps in a New World’, and ‘The Lagoon, the Pond and the Stories beneath the Surface’. However this concept of recognising (through titles) common creative objectives really extends across the entire exhibition. With few exceptions – collages for example – the works interrogate similar ground; they penetrate deeper into process and lead to the manipulation of colour in a determined yet sensual way.
The artist is also fond of posing questions through her titles; ‘Can You Feel It?’ and ‘How Deep is your Life?’ being two provocative examples.
These titles provide a gateway to the paintings and give further insight into Lubkemann’s priorities at the time of creating each work. Of course, after the initial experience of linking words and images it is up to the viewer to make personal sense of the work and discover resonance and meaning. On one level these paintings are tiny jewels; combinations of media and process which are self-contained compressions of emotion, form and colour. But beyond the initial aesthetic impact (at which point the viewer decides whether a work attracts or not) there lies the opportunity to explore these (mostly) small lozenges of light within contexts which transcend their aesthetics; a connection with nature, a connection with the artist’s life experiences, a spiritual response; these are all engagements which can connect the artist and the viewer through the work.
The National Gallery is committed to exhibiting a range of domestic and international contemporary art and Birgitt Lubkemann’s exhibition is a perfect fusion of these twin priorities. German by birth but married to a Seychellois and resident on La Digue since 1996, she epitomises the interface between long-standing creative paths in Seychelles – notably the beauty of the environment and an awareness and application of what we might call ‘western’ compositional and technical values.
This exhibition promises to enlighten and entertain, as well as provide meditative content for viewers who may have been through similar life experiences.
