CONTEMPORARY ARTIST RICCARDA RAABE
She lives in Berlin and works mainly on large canvases, often combining bold brushstrokes with delicate marks or collage work. Her paintings are visual explorations of the human experience, an attempt to put onto canvas what it feels like to be alive, to love, to struggle and to find ourselves subject to the passing of time.
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
I draw inspiration from all aspects of life. A line in a poem, the pattern of a brick wall, the look on a strangers face - painting is my way of reacting and answering back to what the world offers me, an attempt of adding to the conversation that is going on around me.
I am of course also deeply influenced by other artists. The list is endless, but ones that come to mind quickly are Cy Twombly, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Martha Jungwirth - I admire their work for the way each of them has developed such a strong and meaningful language.
Tell us a bit about your creative process, things you are looking forward to this year?
My creative process is all about ‘call and response’. I always start with a playful stage, where I completely let loose and simply activate the canvas with marks, linework and colour. This then gives me something to react to and allows my intuition to lead the way and enter into a dialogue with the canvas. At some point, a possible path for the painting emerges and I have to decide whether or not I want to go down that road. This is when I have to switch from being completely intuitive to a more analysing mindset.
I need to figure out what the painting might be about and try to carve that out by highlighting certain elements while getting rid of others. In the end, a painting emerges which is full of history and turned corners. Throughout the whole process, my aim is to stay open to what might happen and allow the painting to develop organically. I believe a work of art can really connect with an audience when the viewer senses that the artist poured a lot of raw and authentic emotion into it, be it loud or quiet.
It’s definitely what I aim for in my work. I take risks, I try things out and I change my mind.
How has this year changed your creativity or how you see the world changing moving forward?
The past year has definitely affected my creativity, as it has reminded all of us that nothing in life is certain. This can be a really unsettling idea, but I think it can also make us reconsider our habits and appreciate what we have. With lockdowns and small kids at home, I had less time in the studio but I tried to keep the creative juices flowing by being present and really soaking in all that I feel and experience. It reminded me that creativity doesn’t only apply to the productive side of actively ‚making art’ but it is also a lot about simply observing and taking in your surroundings, allowing for ideas to stimulate your mind.
When you realise that, time away from the studio can still be spent in a way that pushes your art forward.
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
I have to say I am slightly obsessed with Princess Diana, even though that’s a bit retro…..
Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so how can it be improved?
Underrepresentation of minorities and of female artists is still a big issue in the contemporary art world, even though it has been for a long time. It’s quite obvious when you look at the number of artworks by women and artists of colour in any major museum’s permanent collection, in galleries or in the auction market.
I wish I had an easy answer as to how this could be improved, but there are many factors that come into play and need to be addressed. An often euro-centric lens when it comes to curation, decades (and centuries) of societal and historical baggage that shape artists’ working situations and collectors’ access and interests in certain artworks.... but I am hopeful that we continue to move towards a more diverse and therefore even richer and more exciting art scene in the years and decades to come. Awareness for these issues keeps growing and slowly but surely the system will have to adapt. There’s so much great art to be discovered.
Thank you Riccarda, her website here.
