Since I deeply admire "Saint Hildegard", the invitation to exhibit in the Kunstkeller of the "Abtei St. Hildegard" filled me with joy. I could hardly imagine a more inspiring setting. Originally the exhibition was planned for October to December 2020. But things were to turn out differently. Just before the end of 2019 I received a phone call. Due to illness, another show had to be postponed. Could I not perhaps imagine opening my exhibition as early as late February 2020? The run would be longer, and in spring many more visitors came to the abbey. I took heart and agreed, even though I would now have far less time to prepare.
The theme I chose for the exhibition was "Rings of Life". The circle is, for me, a special symbol, one that recurs again and again in the work of Saint Hildegard.
New beginnings often follow painful endings. Life and dying, loud and quiet, fast and slow, spring and winter. A seed cannot fully unfold until it has first perished. So too, in the book of life, there is no final page. Each ending is the beginning of a new story.
While a single car had until then been enough to transport the pictures to a venue, this time we needed two cars for the 21 altars and 34 paintings. Together with my friend Ilona and her husband Holger Vonderlind we drove through a flurry of snow into the Rheingau. It was a fairly nerve-racking stretch of time.
The Kunstkeller is a well-lit, bright but low and almost square room. I had to find an idea for the centre of the space. Together with my friend Ilona, who along with her husband has supported me in all my exhibitions, I came upon the thought of having small wooden altars made in varying sizes, each able to hold a picture behind glass, with a little flap above to gather prayer notes or similar. The wood can be glazed in different colours. The idea arose because I had once searched online for such an altar and could find nothing of the kind. I designed 21 altars in sizes up to 60 x 21, which I placed on blocks and cubes throughout the room.
The exhibition opened on 29 February and was closed again two weeks later. Germany entered the first lockdown of the Corona crisis. For two months it remained shut, and was then extended until 27 September 2020. In spite of adverse conditions and sparse opening hours, it proved a highly successful exhibition with a warm response. With a heavy heart I took my leave of the Rheingau and of Saint Hildegard. I did not yet know how quickly I would return.
A wonderful exhibition - full of life, inspiring, and joyfully colourful. We enjoyed it very much.
Deeply moving. Wonderful texts. A two-part harmony of image and word.
Moving doorways into the hidden.
Such a moving, wonderful exhibition. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank you for these beautiful visual impulses. The power of the colours is strong, and the wonderful commentaries on the painterly compositions. Moved, absorbed, delighted - LIFE.
The tenderness, the softness in the colours and forms - all this is balm for the soul. The words lead inward, toward meditation. Beautiful!