The NEUE GRUPPE celebrates its 75th anniversary with an extensive exhibition of artworks by its members. The theme here is the diversity of this Munich artists’ group, but at the same time an imposed formal rigor.

The NEUE GRUPPE was founded in 1946, immediately after the end of World War II, to present a new art characterized by diversity. But what do contemporary artists think about the idea of an art association, a parallel show of works in the most diverse styles? Is such a community still relevant in our media-driven, egoistic society? We say: YES!

Stylistic coexistence as peers in a group strengthens one’s own artistic position, develops a lively commonality, leads one’s creative gaze beyond the tip of one’s own nose and evolves into an exciting freestyle. The basic idea of this anniversary exhibition is a formal rigor, but this strictness is counterbalanced by the diverse working methods of the participating artists. The starting point for this is a cubic space measuring 75 x 75 x 75 cm. The same circumscribed volume is made available to each artist, who is free to fill it with whatever content they wish.

On the one hand, this demarcated space stands for reduction and limitation of artistic possibilities and a form of uniformity, but on the other hand it also offers unlimited freedom and an enormous abundance within its confines. The starting point is always the same, but the goals are completely different. This challenges the artists to venture beyond their traditional ways of working and to explore new paths, while simultaneously coming together to a pursue common idea. In other words, to realize the greatest possible freedom in a small format and thus to document diversity as a social goal.

Stefan Wehmeier (2022)

Opening: October 15, 2021, 7 to 10 pm. Duration of the exhibition, October 15 to December 4, 2021. Opening hours: Tue, 4 to 6 pm; Wed to Fri, 3 to 6 pm; Sat, 10 am to 1 pm. Gallery Kunstblick, Neue Strasse 44, D-72336 Balingen

Beatriz von Eidlitz does not see herself as a painter, but as a sculptor. And sculpture is also the genre in which her roots lie. Born in Buenos Aires, she studied sculpture in Argentina during in the years of the military dictatorship. She had to be very inventive at that time, when many things were scarce, including art supplies. She later studied applied graphics and painting in Munich, where she discovered her passion for paper and especially for making paper by hand. Making paper means participating in a history that is over 2,000 years old, from valuable material to recycled object.

She devoted a decade of labor to rebuilding the paper mill in Großpertholz, Austria, where she ultimately became, as she says herself, “part of the paper mill.”

Three primary materials – pigments, iron and paper – comprise her enchanting pictorial objects. All there are millennia-old materials, which the artist brings into an unprecedented combination and a wholly new context.

The paper serves Beatriz von Eidlitz as a substrate for the picture and/or as a working material. The iron, on the other hand, functions as a relief plate or stencil.

Beatriz von Eidlitz applies pigments directly to sheets of iron and afterwards covers them with a layer of pulp, which gradually dries. After the pulp has dried, the paper sheet is peeled off. What remains on the iron plate are fascinating surface structures that the oxidation process has imprinted there. Each pigment oxidizes differently and accordingly creates different surfaces. If all goes optimally well, two embossed prints are created in this way: one on the sheet of iron and a second on the dried paper that has been peeled from the metal plate.

There’s a special appeal in these dual artworks, each consisting of a paper negative and metal relief positive. The symbiosis of iron and paper is expressed in different dominances: sometimes the paper determines the artwork, other times the iron’s optics have a work-determining effect. Beatriz von Eidlitz’s works present themselves in this contrast between soft and hard, concave and convex, strictly geometric or vegetatively floral. What holds true for the form is equally true for the color. On the one hand it seems reserved, earthy, cork-like, describing the primal elements of earth, fire and water; yet on the other hand it can appear gaudy, intensely luminous and much more radiant than any oil paint could be. The pigments unite in a colorful dance and experience a togetherness in the democracy of the colors.

Basically, one would like not only to look at Beatriz von Eidlitz’s works, but also to grasp them in the truest sense of the word. These surface structures are so enlivening that one is tempted to perceive their haptic effects at firsthand by tracing one’s fingertips along the craters that have formed.

The rest is accomplished by the colors themselves, whether the sheer sight of these colors makes their viewer feel tipsy or whether they remind the viewer of transience and processes of change in the presence of corroded iron. Beatriz von Eidlitz knows how to set our mental cinema in motion and to conjure images and feelings.

It remains to be hoped that the artist will receive many more inspirations from this wonderful material (paper), from the “flour of the spirit,” as the writer Erik Orsenna so vividly put it in “On the Trail of Paper – A Declaration of Love.”

Heidrun Bucher-Schlichtenberger, M.A., Gallery Kunstblick Balingen

Gallery in the old town hall, Kunstforum Seligenstadt e.V. Frankfurter Str. 13, D-63500 Seligenstadt. Joint exhibition with Margot Middelhauve, Dieter Balzer and Paul Hirsch, from July 8 to September 16, 2018, Fri to Sun and public holidays from 3 to 6 pm.

Artworks by Beatriz von Eidlitz are on display in the old town hall. Rather than relying on classical painting for her pictorial objects, she pursues her own unique path, which is based on a well-conceived combination of outstanding craftsmanship and expertise.

Beatriz von Eidlitz began making paper at an early age, rebuilt an old paper mill in Austria and has been experimenting with a wide variety of materials and fabrics ever since. Intensive exploration of the processes of paper technology culminated in the development of her distinctive method of artistic design. She creates her artworks both on paper and on iron plates. In the production process, both materials play their part in interplay with pigments and sculptural forms. The open, lively textures of the surfaces are decisive for the formal language and expressive quality. Design planning and the coincidences of the material’s own will, such as oxidation, enter into an exciting interplay, as does the polarity of figuration and abstraction. Beatriz von Eidlitz concentrates on geometric forms, clear lines and mostly bold colors. A closeness to the natural process of creation remains visible and opens up a tremendous diversity of textures and chromatic nuances. The artist’s avowed aim is to conjure a magical intensity in the harmony of color, form and the unmistakable character of the surfaces.

Opening of the Winningen Art Days: Friday, May 6, 2016 at 5 pm. Duration of the exhibition: Friday, May 6 from 5 pm to 11 pm; Saturday, May 7 from 11 am to 9 pm; Sunday, May 8 from 10 am to 6 pm. Exhibition venue: Town Hall, August-Horch-Str. 3, D-56333 Winningen, Germany.

What does it say? First of all: Here I am, no question about it! But one thing at a time. The first is the enchantment in the eye of the beholder. Along with, it the power of allurement unfolds. It captivates the gaze and gives it much work to do. It sets the imagination into motion. Is there an order that can be deciphered? Aren’t there refractions her that nullify all regularity? And isn’t the regularity, where it dominates, again surprisingly set into motion by the fine structure? Thus aesthetics, which literally comes from perception, motivates the desire for association. And the associations are the great free play with which these pictorial objects captivate those who allow their gaze to wander among them.

Moods are awakened, strings are plucked, pictorial motifs are thought through, fantasies are aroused. Sometimes they may wander into cosmic realms, sometimes into the concrete world of tangible forms, sometimes the rhythm of clashing forms, colors and textures becomes perceptible. Messages are not to be feared. No fetters are placed on the freedom of contemplation, just as the pleasure of contemplation when looking into a landscape arises from the tension between what has become and what has been made.

Dynamic or filigree visual ideas combine with plays of color, which are sketched and elaborated entirely by the unfettered imagination. And the focus is always on the contrast between the form and the lively, open character of the surfaces. The artist’s will and the material’s will are constantly in dialogue. The contrasts between figurative representation, abstraction and the concrete appear to be suspended and resolved in a synthesis. Or to put it briefly: magical intensity is a characteristic of Beatriz von Eidlitz’s art.

Eberhard Falcke (2015)