08.12.2022 – 05.03.2023
The exhibition shows works by the German painter Ruth Baumgarte (1923 – 2013). Up into old age, the artist traveled to Africa more than forty times, where she carefully observed people and tried to empathize with them. She traveled to Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Central to understanding Ruth Baumgarte’s art is the relationship between man and nature, the merging of figure and landscape. Back home in her studio in Germany, she later created intensively colored paintings, virtuoso watercolors, expressive gouaches and drawings on the basis of quick sketches that she made on site.
The approximately 38 oil paintings, watercolors and graphics unfold an almost magical quality when you look at them. The Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirikure said of the artist: “For her, the countries of Africa and its peoples were not models to be captured on canvas, but an integral part of her life’s journey.”
Ruth Baumgarte – Africa: Visions of Light and Color
8.12.2022 – 5.3.2023
Albertina
Albertinaplatz 1, Vienna
https://www.albertina.at
