Timely Images
Page 3/4
Nevertheless, Bettina Rave is motivated not only by Constructivism and Concrete Art, but also by the paintings of Robert Ryman and Agnes Martin. In conversations in her studio, she, herself, has mentioned being inspired by paintings by Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly, as well as by conceptual art. In her text paintings (2013-14) it is this idiosyncratic symbiosis of pictorial space and linguistic space, of letters and ground, and the “semi-” white, large letters on a double white background representing quotations on painting in their respective original languages, that Bettina Rave finds important; not only for her own work, but also for the consideration of painting in general.
Lying behind the first layer of brown text, we look directly at the unpainted canvas. The various layers of thin glazes also allow the painting process to become visible to the viewer.
The artist has experimented a great deal to achieve a simplicity that embraces a minimal visual language of form and color; she chose classic Helvetica, an even, clear font for the letters.
This font was first developed in the 1950s, but since it is a more austere development of earlier typefaces, it has a timeless look, which connects it to a modern attitude like no other classic elements.
These letters were plotted and masked – and so the oldest forms, like typefaces, are merged here with the most modern technology into a new compact entity.
“Big Places”(2011-14) are probably Bettina Rave’s most extensive work group, where “big” also describes the proportions of her studio, because these “big” paintings are no larger in format than the typography (155 x 206 cm) – but the respective effect of the pictorial compositions go beyond the edges of the images and into the space onto the surrounding wall.
Rave makes reference to an allover structure of painting that has been recognized in particular since Jackson Pollock. However, we could also think of photographs that portray the world in similar and yet such differing jumps in scale: From the cosmos to the smallest human cells, thought up, for example, as the Cosmic View – The Universe in Forty Jumps by Kees Boeke in 1954 and made popular in the book and later film The Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.
In turn, we believe we can see media images in the “Big Places,” single pixels zoomed out and blurred on the edges – prototypes that can be traced back to electronic scan lines – and still we see Constructivist compositions and balanced areas of color as painting: oil on canvas.
he horizontal fields are varyingly large, as if they are in motion that radiates over the edges. Bettina Rave once again refers here to her own work in the 1990s, which I have described above.
The flow of images, the coming and going of pixel fields, the line structure of the electronic image composition behind the real image – all of this is reflected in the truest sense of the word in Rave’s works.
Timely Images
Page 3/4
Nevertheless, Bettina Rave is motivated not only by Constructivism and Concrete Art, but also by the paintings of Robert Ryman and Agnes Martin. In conversations in her studio, she, herself, has mentioned being inspired by paintings by Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly, as well as by conceptual art. In her text paintings (2013-14) it is this idiosyncratic symbiosis of pictorial space and linguistic space, of letters and ground, and the “semi-” white, large letters on a double white background representing quotations on painting in their respective original languages, that Bettina Rave finds important; not only for her own work, but also for the consideration of painting in general.
Lying behind the first layer of brown text, we look directly at the unpainted canvas. The various layers of thin glazes also allow the painting process to become visible to the viewer.
The artist has experimented a great deal to achieve a simplicity that embraces a minimal visual language of form and color; she chose classic Helvetica, an even, clear font for the letters.
This font was first developed in the 1950s, but since it is a more austere development of earlier typefaces, it has a timeless look, which connects it to a modern attitude like no other classic elements.
These letters were plotted and masked – and so the oldest forms, like typefaces, are merged here with the most modern technology into a new compact entity.
“Big Places”(2011-14) are probably Bettina Rave’s most extensive work group, where “big” also describes the proportions of her studio, because these “big” paintings are no larger in format than the typography (155 x 206 cm) – but the respective effect of the pictorial compositions go beyond the edges of the images and into the space onto the surrounding wall.
Rave makes reference to an allover structure of painting that has been recognized in particular since Jackson Pollock. However, we could also think of photographs that portray the world in similar and yet such differing jumps in scale: From the cosmos to the smallest human cells, thought up, for example, as the Cosmic View – The Universe in Forty Jumps by Kees Boeke in 1954 and made popular in the book and later film The Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.
In turn, we believe we can see media images in the “Big Places,” single pixels zoomed out and blurred on the edges – prototypes that can be traced back to electronic scan lines – and still we see Constructivist compositions and balanced areas of color as painting: oil on canvas.
The horizontal fields are varyingly large, as if they are in motion that radiates over the edges. Bettina Rave once again refers here to her own work in the 1990s, which I have described above.
The flow of images, the coming and going of pixel fields, the line structure of the electronic image composition behind the real image – all of this is reflected in the truest sense of the word in Rave’s works.