Red, Red Roses
Studio Weil
Barbara Weil
July - September 2024
In 2011, Barbara Weil created an intensely red sculpture that is now installed outside Studio Weil, its elongated contours silhouetted against the clear sky of Puerto de Andratx. Titled “Red, Red Rose,” the sculpture is a sort of homage to her mother. The relationship with mothers is complex, both in life and, symbolically, in the history of art. Too often, the example of inspiring women artists has been buried under the weight of what Mira Schor called "the paternal lineage." That is, the patrilineality inherent in the history of art, which makes female artists always more difficult to find, especially in the generation to which Barbara Weil (Chicago, 1933 – Andratx, 2018) belonged. But, as Schor reminds us,
“Yes, there are mothers. (…) Sharpening critical thinking through vigorous debate with other women offers more hope for a revitalized art discourse than the endless reinscription within an aged system of paternal lineage.”[1]
By the time Barbara started painting, she was already a mother and had a mentor in Chicago[2] who accompanied her in her first steps towards discovering painting. She soon realized that it was, after all, a journey of self-discovery through art. This is evident throughout her career, but few works demonstrate it as clearly as “Super Woman.” This vibrant-colored sculpture, which looks as if it was taken directly from one of her paintings, is a feminist statement ahead of its time.
In 1967, she arrived in Puerto de Andratx, and her nonconformist spirit resonated so much with this place that she eventually moved permanently to the island. Decades later, she built Studio Weil[3] by the sea, which today hosts, among other things, this retrospective exhibition of her work. “Red, Red Roses” brings together a collection of works with the evolution in the use of color as a common thread. Some of these works have not been shown to the public for over forty years, but now they coexist in the exhibition space with others of more recent creation, such as the sculptures from the “Circus” series (2012).
The exhibition welcomes us with monochromatic works of fragile materiality. "Skin" (1979) is one of Barbara’s earliest and best-preserved sculptures. These cardboard works are like small architectures where the artist experiments with space and its possibilities for modification through folds. Her constant interest in architecture is radically manifested in the series of prints “The Critical Change” (2005), a proposal developed alongside architect Lars Graebner. It evokes one of her large-scale sculptures, conceived to allow interior passage, with a height of 16 meters and crowned by a lookout that would transform the views and experience of the landscape as one ascends. Although the project was never realized, the prints reveal the possibilities of Barbara's work in public spaces: works that invite exploration and an immersive art experience. The shadows cast throughout the day would form a dynamic sculpture, with its angular shapes rotating in the surrounding landscape... imagining this cyclical movement inevitably brings to mind the dreams and aspirations behind projects that never see the light of day. Today, they continue to fascinate us by showing that nostalgic scenario of what could have been.
The same year she was working on her ambitious public project, she also created the sculptures “The Minautor” (2005), which present clear parallels. Those initial cardboard folds evolved into new formal possibilities and met color: red splashes the ends of these sculptures and introduces the chromatic component to the exhibition. Red is also prominent in many of Barbara's paintings from the eighties, which were exhibited in various galleries and the early editions of the ARCO Madrid contemporary art fair. Lastly, the most recent works, “Circus,” conclude the exhibition. In these, the experimentation with color and form finally meet and embrace, creating simple structures that communicate with the waves and flares of her paintings. Finally, in 2013, Barbara created a self-portrait very different from the gray self-portrait seen at the beginning of the exhibition: a tree-face on an orange background speckled with green tones. It is, like her work, a lush tree that bears fruit generously and has taken root in the artistic genealogy.
Barbara died the same year I arrived on the island, also to stay, and, unfortunately, we never met. However, walking through this garden that is the exhibition, I recognize her as part of a long maternal lineage of inspiring, creative, and independent women that we must gradually discover and reclaim for future generations. Only then will we feel more embraced in the company of our many mothers.
[1] Schor, Mira. 2001. "Patrilineage." In Feminist Criticism in Art Theory and History, edited by Karen Cordero and Inda Sáenz, 111-130. Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana. p. 119.
[2] Douglass Craft, who taught at the Art Institute of Chicago.
[3] In collaboration with architect Daniel Libeskind.