Irene Niepel
Irene Niepel (* 1955 in Cologne ) is a Berlin artist who has been working successfully in both painting and building art since the 1980s . Her works tend to be classified as magical realism. She herself describes her style of representation as "formally objective and content- wise inspired by animal mythology with a philosophical interest".
Life
She was born into a working-class family and, through the influence of a friend's mother, came to the modern-language Elisabeth-von-Thuringia grammar school in her home town. After graduating from high school in 1973, she first began studying literature at the University of Cologne and at the same time enrolled as a second student at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences , studying art and design.
In 1978 Irene Niepel moved to Berlin and studied painting at the Hochschule der Künste (HdK) from 1978 to 1984 . In 1983 she joined Hans-Jürgen Diehl as a master class student .
After completing her studies, she became a freelance artist. Her talent as a painter was further promoted by the two most important Berlin grants (1984–1987: Atelier Käuzchensteig , Berlin and 1986: work grant from the Senate for Cultural Affairs, Berlin ). In addition, she passed on her knowledge as a lecturer at various institutions: 1988–1991 at the HdK, faculties 6/1 Art Education and Fine Art ; since 1984 also as a lecturer at adult education centers or in further training for educators for aesthetic education as well as in school projects.
Irene Niepel lives and works in Berlin-Schöneweide .
Main motives
Two basic motifs run through Irene Niepel's works - on the one hand, the myths of nature and animals and, on the other, the architectural space . Direct artistic role models are only rudimentary, she only mentions the American painter Georgia O'Keeffe .
In many of her works she combines animal motifs with spaces, objects and symbols, which in this combination contradict our usual context of thought. In this way, the viewer is given the opportunity to take on new perspectives and to question his usual view of other living beings. The author Sean Bussenius said in the announcement for the exhibition Mythical Coordinates in the Villa Donnersmarck, 2014 as follows:
“Irene Niepel's animal protagonists wear jewelry, they populate living rooms. They move in dimensions and living spaces that are otherwise reserved for humans. The Berlin artist questions people's claim to power over these spaces. With strict compositions and strong color contrasts, she creates an alternative reality in which emerges what receives little attention in everyday life. "
In a portrait of the artist in the magazine Stadt und Land, in which Irene Niepel also expresses herself about her motifs, it says: "Her animal motifs are always about people. 'There is a divine and an animal level," she explains Artist: 'Man cannot imagine himself in any of these levels. Both remain permanently alien to us, we just project a lot into them. "
The art critic and head of the UdK library, Claudio Müller, commented on her motifs as follows in an exhibition catalog from 1995 with works by Irene Niepel:
“Irene Niepel invents powerful, new, surprising images from elements of traditional symbols. Through combinations and meaningful composition patterns, familiar symbol motifs take on new forms and express a new meaning. "
Representations of people appear rather cautious in Niepel's works. One example is the series on Queen Elizabeth I of England . During a visit to the National Portrait Gallery in London , she was so impressed by the portrait of the Queen by an anonymous painter there that she subsequently dealt intensively with her historical personality and life circumstances. She decided to paint a series of small-format pictures with Elisabeth, in which she brings the queen into close connection with her intentions for nature and especially animals. This series now includes more than 40 portraits, all of which are mixed media on paper. Here is a quote from Sabine Appel , author of the biography "Elisabeth I of England" published by Bechtle-Ullstein:
“The traditionally rigid and stereotypical portraits of Elizabeth I of England are given a new dimension by Irene Niepel's gaze. The mask-like face of Elisabeth Tudor, which has been handed down to us, has lively and individual features that are also quite variable. "
Painting style
Irene Niepel prefers strict image compositions in her pictures and thus focuses the viewer's gaze on the essentials. This is also evident in their rather mythical depictions, such as in the work Forest with birches and feathers ( see cover picture of En plystrende kvinne ). Her first exhibition catalog in 1986 says about her approach and painting style:
"The color lives from warm-cold contrasts and a shadowless light-dark gradation, which, in combination with the spontaneous thin application, gives the picture objects a peculiar, glassy transparency."
Irene Niepel has kept this work with translucent shades of color over the years, so that the art critic Jürgen Schilling also commented on it in 1995 as follows:
“Their sophisticatedly reduced palette means that the pictures shine out of themselves. [...] Layer is layer upon layer, which results in dynamics, structure and order. Emotion and calculation, the romantic and the combative and challenging are balanced. "
The almost three-meter-high picture of a forest with birch trees and feathers in blue, gray and autumnal tones, executed with dynamic brushwork, also fascinated the pastor of the Berlin Cathedral , Manfred Richter. He chose it as the subject of his Advent sermon in 2003.
Exhibitions (selection)
Solo exhibitions
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Participation in exhibitions
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Works (selection)
painting
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(Continued painting)
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architectural art
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- As an art student, Irene Niepel took part in an open competition held by the then Art Office in Berlin-Kreuzberg for a facade painting on the teacher's house, Tempelhofer Ufer 20 (exit Möckernbrücke underground station ) in 1980 . Among the numerous submissions, she emerged as the winner with her design of a house facade, which is drawn around the fire wall as a curtain and behind which a green landscape is indicated. Their design was carried out in 1981 and can still be seen there despite several restorations of the building (see photo; status 2010).
- 1997/98: Entrance areas of high-rise buildings, Müggelschlößchenweg 36, Berlin-Köpenick : Geometry variations
- 1997/98: Facade pictures An der Wuhlheide 88-94, Berlin-Oberschöneweide : brightly colored staircase representations in front of a glass surface
- 1997/98: Interior design of two atriums over two floors in the Kita Oranienstraße 56, Berlin-Kreuzberg : large panels each with four images from the cycle of symbols cats and eagles
- 2002: Gable paintings in Charlottenstrasse 17 a, b, c in Berlin-Köpenick: moon landscapes / moon maps
Illustrations
The Pax publishing house in Oslo used pictures by Irene Niepel for the cover design of its novels by the English author Antonia Susan Byatt :
In the Norwegian translated and 2004-2006 published novels still life , Jomfruen i hagen [Virgin in the Garden], Babylon tårn [Tower of Babel] andEn plystrende kvinne [A Whistling Woman] received dust jackets based on pictures by Irene Niepel.
literature
- Bernhard Kerber: Catalog Irene Niepel. Pictures from 1984–1986 . Zehlendorf Art Office, 1986
- Claudio Müller, Karlheinz Nowald : Irene Niepel. Pictures from 1985–1989. Exhibition from 1. – 31. October 1989 , Patzer Druck 1989
- Claudio Müller et al .: Irene Niepel. Pictures from 1990–1995. Exhibition from 1. – 30. September 1995 . Shop gallery Kurfürstendamm 64, Berlin. Saladruck, Berlin
- Communications on photography in the visual arts. Association of Berlin Women Artists . Association of Berlin Women Artists, Berlin, ISBN 3-9802288-2-7
- Irene Niepel in the library catalog of the Berlin University of the Arts
Web links
- Homepage of Irene Niepel
- Irene Niepel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Artist portrait Irene Niepel Documentation by FineArts-TV, Munich (contemporaryart-tv.com)
References and comments
- ↑ Press release on the exhibition Mythical Coordinates in the Villa Donnersmarck, 2014 Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation. accessed February 22, 2018
- ↑ Flyer for the vernissage of the exhibition Mythical Coordinates in the Villa Donnersmarck, 2014 (Pdf), website of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation, accessed February 22, 2018
- ↑ Quoted from: Every spring is a miracle, animal motifs and myths - the pictures by the artist Irene Niepel carry you away into fantastic worlds In: Magazin Stadt und Land, issue 58/2017, November 20, 2017, accessed February 22, 2018
- ↑ a b artist portrait Irene Niepel , a documentation by FineArts-TV, Munich (contemporaryart-tv.com)
- ^ Sabine Appel Elisabeth I of England in the catalog of the German National Library
- ↑ This quote from Sabine Appel on the occasion of a studio visit to Irene Niepel was approved by Sabine Appel
- ↑ Ingeborg Ruthe: Dangerous Beauty . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 18, 1996
- ↑ Pictures stay longer . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 13, 1996; Information about the picture exhibition by Irene Niepel in the foyer of the publishing house of the Berliner Zeitung
- ^ Konvex - Gallery of the Central Consumption Cooperative in Berlin ; Retrieved February 3, 2011.
- ↑ Website with the ACB offers in September 2005 ( Memento from May 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 127 kB); Retrieved September 15, 2012
- ^ Exhibition Mythical Coordinates . Retrieved January 2, 2011
- ↑ posters by Irene Niepel; published in the catalog of 1000 best works, Warsaw
- ↑ page no longer available , searching web archives: ; Brief information on the poster exhibition in 1989 in Mons , including on the subjects of perestroika , the Palestinian revolution in the Gaza Strip , Nelson Mandela (French)
- ^ Homepage of the Schadowhaus, today the seat of the Association of Berlin Artists
- ↑ Views of the exhibition in the Investitionsbank 2005
- ↑ Overview of the exhibitions in the Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth , accessed on February 22, 2017.
- ↑ Homepage kunstremiseberlin.de
- ↑ Mythical creatures on the sofa in the Artothek of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, work number G 1064
- ↑ View of the picture Lavender Message
- ↑ Think Kreuzberg! An architectural guide to the municipal monuments in the Kreuzberg district , published by the Kreuzberg district office, 1998, p. 17: Tempelhofer Ufer, teacher's residence (illustration and explanatory text)
- ↑ Images of the art-in-building works by I. Niepel kunst-am-bau-irene-niepel.de
- ^ Pax-Verlag with illus .: Jomfruen i hagen , 2004 * Babels tårn , 2005 * Stilleben , 2005 * En plystrende kvinne , 2006
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Niepel, Irene |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |