Elvira Bach
11/01/2013 – 03/30/2014
Elvira Bach is one of the most successful German contemporary artists and is considered an icon on the national and international scene. The artist has fascinated people with her distinctive and powerful images of women for thirty years now. Starting in November, the messmer art gallery will be presenting around 60 paintings and sculptures as part of an extensive cross-section.
Born in Taunus in 1951, Elvira Bach studied at the University of the Arts in West Berlin in the 1970s together with the so-called “Junge Wilden” around Reiner Fetting, Helmut Middendorf and “Salomé”. With her participation in documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982, Elvira Bach achieved her international breakthrough.
Her mostly large-format pictures, which are characterized by a gripping painting gesture and intense colors, have a unique recognition value and magically attract the viewer to this day.
The subject of women is at the center of her impulsive painting. Her portraits of women reflect the different facets of her life. The resemblance of the pictures to her own person is unmistakable. Her works embody the artist’s irrepressible will to live and at the same time reflect all levels of being human, from passion and happiness to suffering, grief, fear and loneliness.
The artist believes that man – whether woman or man – with his faith, his love and hope will always be the measure of all things: Elvira Bach’s work will therefore remain relevant in the future.