Barbara Weil

Barbara Weil (* 1933 in Chicago , Illinois ; † January 19, 2018 in Port d'Andratx , Mallorca ) was an American artist who made relationships between painting , sculpture , contemporary architecture and people visible in an unusual way. In collaboration with Daniel Libeskind, she had Studio Weil developed and built. The architecturally significant building on Mallorca contains the artist's work and exhibition rooms.

Life

Barbara Weil grew up in Chicago, where she attended Roosevelt College, then the Art Institute of Chicago . While raising a family, she lived and worked in California and later on Mallorca. There she died on January 19, 2018 after a brief serious illness with her family.

plant

At first glance, painting appears to be American Abstract Expressionism , but of a different kind than the New York School. In fact, Barbara Weil examined the form and color theory of the Bauhaus at the Art Institute of Chicago.

A closer look reveals further approaches: references to other art styles and figuration, critical references to classic artistic themes such as love and the female body, or to themes from mythologies of the feminine, such as in the cycle of works "Mythology of the Moon" (Mythologie des Mondes ) and works like "Super Woman - Back to the Womb" (Super Woman - Back to the Womb). Self-portraits can be found in the graphic work .

The artist implements categories of painting, sculpture and architecture through intuitive and rational deconstruction, primarily in forms of Abstract Expressionism and more recent style developments. New interrelationships are consequently created: painting with primary colors becomes a perspective room installation, one generation of sculptures is reminiscent of two-dimensional excerpts from painting, others are developed from materials that have two-dimensionality , such as sheets of cardboard and paper . At an ironic distance to art styles and conventional art production, what is thought separately usually fits into an Œevre in which everything is set in mental , and for once even physical, movement. Three sculptures, moved by sea breezes in a large jagged section in the western side of the artist's studio, create a new connection between architecture and art.

Even before Studio Weil was built, Barbara Weil's work contained references to contemporary architecture: in 1979 she began a series of fiberglass sculptures that led to a collaboration with the progressive architect and architectural theorist Stanley Tigerman . Tigerman shows works by Barbara Weil in its exhibition rooms.

Studio Weil

Three sculptures, 2003,
as part of the architecture of Studio Weil. overall view

When Barbara Weil was planning to build her studio in 1998, she met Daniel Libeskind and her work became the inspiration for his architectural design.

Barbara Weil and Daniel Libeskind developed the studio in Port d'Andratx in close collaboration. The British architecture critic Jonathan Glancey mentions similarities in dealing with visual form, in the work of the artist and the architect, which already existed before Libeskind became known. In the artist's gesture, circular shapes were a formal basis. Libeskind's preoccupation with the system of concentric circles, which the Mallorcan philosopher Ramon Llull had devised to explain the world, turned out to be an ideal complement.

Libeskind calls the studio a cello sonata in comparison to its large buildings. Set up in the dimension of a concentrated museum, it is a permanent exhibition space for the artist's oeuvre.

Sculptures and installations

• Under the Moon 3.0 m, painted iron sculpture. Part of the Seville Expo 1992 . Since 2006 at the Center for Contemporary Art Andalusia in the Monasterio de la Cartuja . Seville, Spain
• Allegro 3.5 m, boat building board, car paint. Verbier Festival , 2002. Verbier, Switzerland
• Siurell de Libertad 3.0 m, fiberglass, car paint. Conservatorio de Musica Andratx, 1998. Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
• Over the Moon 4.0 m, fiberglass, car paint. Paseo Maritimo, Puerto de Andratx, 1995. Puerto de Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
• City of the Big Shoulders temporary installation with 11 wall sculptures, polyurethane paint on fiberglass, and a standing sculpture, polyurethane on fiberglass. 1993 at the Three Illinois Center. Chicago, Illinois (see catalog). Works from the installation have been at Stanley Tigerman, Archeworks, Chicago since 1993:
• Female sculpture 3.5 m, 1993, wall sculpture
• Male sculpture 2.4 m, 1993, wall sculpture
• So Is She 140 cm, 1993, standing sculpture

literature

• Mnemonic cartwheels: Daniel Libeskind's Studio Weil and the work of Barbara Weil; Exhibition catalog. Kristin Feireiss (Author), Kristin Feireiss u. Hans-Jürgen Commerell (ed.). Berlin: Aedes West, 2000. German, English

Web links

• Literature by and about Barbara Weil in the catalog of the German National Library
• Studio Weil

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Breuninger: The artist Barbara Weil has died . At: Mallorca Magazin , January 21, 2018 (accessed March 4, 2018)
2. ↑ See Weblink Studio Weil
3. ↑ ^{a b} Helen McNeil, Barbara Weil: Barbara Weil: Mythology of the Moon . Recent works: february 20-march 14, 1992. Institute of North American Studies, Badalona 1992 (English, Catalan, Spanish, studioweil.com - http://cataleg.bnc.cat:2082/record=b1413922~S13 Bibliotheca de Catalunya ).
4. ↑ Jonathan Glancey: So where's the kitchen? The Guardian, September 29, 2003, pp. 1, 7 , accessed on January 19, 2011 (English): "Was I a deconstructivist before I knew the word?" 
5. ↑ Source: "[...] certain fragments of the painting demanded at a given moment, a particular physical projection in space, and so, without abandoning the original two dimension - yet not limited by this, since Barbara Weil's former sculpture had not needed to be intensified by color - they initiated a gentle flight towards ingravity, obtaining finally the dream of eternal movement [...]. "
   Compare:" [...] certain parts of the painting demanded a certain physical projection in space at a given moment. And so, without denying the original two-dimensionality - nor being limited by it, since Barbara Weil's previous sculptures did not require intensification through color - they initiated a gentle flight into weightlessness in order to finally realize the dream of eternal movement [... ]. “Joan Carles Gomis: Barbara Weil . Ed .: Galería Barbara Botz, Puerto Andratx. Palma de Mallorca 1995, p. not numbered . (spanish, english)
6. ↑ Jonathan Glancey: So where's the kitchen? The Guardian, September 29, 2003, pp. 1, 9 , accessed on January 19, 2011 (English): “These dangle inside an open gallery cut through the western end of the building, a theatrical gesture many architects would dismiss, yet one that makes the building very much because it's own. " 
7. ↑ Biography. (No longer available online.) Studio Weil, archived from the original on July 16, 2011 ; accessed on January 18, 2011 (English): “Because was planning to build a studio when she met Daniel Libeskind. The shared intuition of the architect and the artist resulted in a studio space where Weils's art is the inspiration for Libeskind's design. “ Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Jonathan Glancey: So wher's the kitchen. The Guardian, September 29, 2003, pp. 1, 6 , accessed January 19, 2011 . 
9. ↑ cf. Mnemonic cartwheels: Daniel Libeskind's Studio Weil and the work of Barbara Weil; Exhibition catalog. Kristin Feireiss (Author), Kristin Feireiss u. Hans-Jürgen Commerell (ed.). Berlin: Aedes West, 2000. English
10. ^ Giles Worsley: Beauty without tears. The Telegraph, January 5, 2004, pp. 1.14 , accessed January 25, 2011 . 
11. ↑ Galería Barbara Botz, Puerto Andratx (Ed.): Barbara Weil . Text by Carlos Gomis: Forest of the Senses . Palma de Mallorca 1995, p. not numbered (with photographs: City of the Big Shoulders (installation); So is She ; Siurell de Libertad (under a different name); Encima de La Luna ; among others). (English Spanish)