Sabine Barber

At the Break of Dawn. Textile Images

25/02—26/04/26

 

Sabine Barber with Annemarie Balden-Wolff, Georg Barber/ATAK, Martin Barber, Michael Voll 

 

The artist and educator Sabine Barber (born 1941 in Stettin) has been a central figure in Frankfurt’s art and cultural scene since the 1970s. As a co-founder of the Frankfurt Art Association, a former employee of the Museum of Young Art, and above all as an artist, she shaped the city’s art scene for decades.

 

The exhibition focuses on Sabine Barber’s textile artworks, whose visual language spans between concepts of classical modernism, such as the Bauhaus, as well as East German modernism and painting or graphic art. For her poetic compositions, she uses both representational and figurative elements, as well as abstract and reduced-form elements. She always starts with the material and its sensual qualities, be it wool, cotton, blended fabrics, paper, or other materials. Themes such as nature and landscape, but also the intimacy of space and the symbolic nature of the constructive, are recurring themes in Sabine Barber’s work. Essential impulses for this artistic output also repeatedly stem from various techniques of working with textiles, which the artist has experimented with, combined, and expanded. The spectrum ranges from embroidery or the Mola technique to weaving and machine-stitched drawing. Together with her husband, Jürgen Barber, the artist recently relocated to the Berlin area, leaving Frankfurt (Oder). With this exhibition, the artist bids farewell to Frankfurt (Oder), just as the BLMK honors the work of a grande dame, her art, and her impact by presenting a cross-section of her oeuvre and its development over a period of more than 40 years. The solo exhibition includes selected works by artistic and family companions.