Works by the painter Monika Schrickel
The painter Monika Schrickel (1940-2022) is one of Saarland's most important female artists. She lived with her family in Saarland from 1961 and completed her artistic training in drawing, painting and graphic art here from 1969 to 1974. Numerous solo and group exhibitions followed from 1974 onwards. In 1985, she founded the Saar women artists' group. She organized numerous projects on topics such as industrial culture, violence and Eros, time and space, origin and civilization, terror meets art. Characteristic of her commitment was the intensive exchange with artists and associations as well as her work as an expert in art and cultural committees. For many years, she was managing director of the Künstlerhaus and chairwoman of the Professional Association of Visual Artists in the Saarland. She was an important support and point of contact for the development of artists in the Saarland scene.
The escape from the GDR and the need to build up a livelihood, which initially blocked her path to art (until 1965), stand for the eventful life of the artist, who also practiced down-to-earth professions.
She curated the art exhibitions at Kleinblittersdorf Town Hall with flair and sensitivity for almost 30 years until 2022.
To life
Against this backdrop, an exhibition will be shown at Kleinblittersdorf Town Hall from the end of March that pays homage to Monika Schrickel and pays tribute to her contribution to art education in the Saarbrücken region. With the title "Auf das Leben" (To Life), her son Ralph Schrickel spans a broad arc with a selection of works that trace her artistic life's work.
The exhibition can be seen during the opening hours of the Kleinblittersdorf Historical Town Hall from March 27 to May 27, 2024.
Write the Future
Under the title "Writing the Future", a work by Monika Schrickel, which she created especially for the site in 2003 to kick off the art projects that have followed annually since then, will be shown at the Cultural site Wintringer Chapel on the Wintringer farm. At the time, curator Peter Michael Lupp was able to persuade the artist to exhibit a work from her cycle of works "Offenes Buch. Book Objects" for the formerly monastic site in order to create a connection between time and space. Since then, the vision of writing a future worth living through the signs of art has become the guiding principle of the Wintringer Chapel Cultural Site. This impulse has run like a red thread through 20 years of cultural work in the former medieval priory church and has been reflected in a wide variety of artistic reflections.
Reason enough, after two decades in the "anniversary year 2024", to remember how it all began in 2003/2004 and to pay tribute to the painter Monika Schrickel with a new exhibition of her work. The aim is to integrate her poetic work into a contemporary artistic discourse that deals with the current issues of society and its ability to "write" - in the sense of shape - a sustainable future. The exhibition is also intended as a contribution to this year's celebration of the UNESCO Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve, which will take place in Kleinblittersdorf on June 30, 2024.
The venues involved in the two exhibitions - the Historic Town Hall Kleinblittersdorf and the Cultural site Wintringer Chapel - are among the places of art and culture in the Saarbrücken Regional Association and are cooperating with this exhibition.
As founder of the 'Künstlerinnengruppe Saar' and as chairwoman of the BBK regional association for many years, Monika Schrickel has left a deep mark on the Saarland cultural landscape and has worked intensively to promote the role of artists in society. In her artistic work, she has carefully approached the subject of 'writing'. The works, some of which are large-format, some of which are long picture flags that she created with acrylic or pigments on handmade or silk paper with incredible patience and meticulousness, are reminiscent of written letters and manuscripts and are always delicate in their pictorial structure as cryptic signs and committed to a fine aesthetic of writing and characters. My mother was amazed at the scripts of the cultures and the variety of graphic signs that inspired her to take them up, deal with them and literally write the future.
Ralph Schrickel on his mother's artistic work
Contact
Peter Michael Lupp (Cultural Officer Regionalverband Saarbrücken), Tel. 0681 506-6060, pm.lupp@web.de
Vera Loos (curator of the exhibitions in the Kleinblittersdorf Historical Town Hall), Tel. 0681 35461, Vera@veraloos.de