The Meppener Kunstkreis cordially invites all interested parties to the opening of the exhibition “Two Times – Painting and Drawing” on January 30 at 7 pm. Drawings and large-format paintings by Rüdiger Barharn will be on display at the Koppelschleuse art center.
The exhibition comprises two phases of work by the artist Rüdiger Barharn, which move in the field of tension of the opposite. The first phase consists of large-format paintings from 1998 to 2007, painted on canvas, which thematize different spaces on a first, representational level. Filled and equipped with various objects, such as televisions, monitors, spotlights, chairs, armchairs, huts or tents, they become spaces of encounter, spaces of conversation, social spaces – spaces of existence.
In the second phase, the paintings from 2023 to 2025, the current work cycle, Barharn has created a renewed staging of spaces in a free, associative painting, this time on a consistently abstract level, which in part develops into pure color spaces.
“Two periods” juxtaposes two sections of a complete oeuvre in one exhibition, around 25 years apart, which shows more connections and continuity than contrast and distance.
In both cycles of works, Barharn explores the theme of simultaneity in the image of the hidden and the appearance of the world, between the moments of premonition and remembrance. And they show what painting requires: first and foremost to be movement that generates representation, exchange and mediation.
Rüdiger Barharn studied painting at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (now Universität der Künste) and was a master student of Prof. Bernd Koberling. In 1982 he was awarded the Villa Minimo Prize of the Kunstverein Hannover. This was followed by work scholarships from the state of Lower Saxony and teaching assignments in basic art at the universities of Vechta and Düsseldorf. Antonia Klostermann will introduce the exhibition, which can be seen until March 29. The exhibition is sponsored by Sparkasse Emsland.
Opening hours: Tue, Thu and Sat 14.30 – 17.00, Sun 11.00 – 17.00
Art Center Koppelschleuse
An der Koppelschleuse 19
49716 Meppen