MARIELUISE BARBARA BANTEL | THE BEAUTY OF DECAY

MARIELUISE BARBARA BANTEL | THE BEAUTY OF DECAY

In a world of standardized mass products, the individual loses its perceived value. Only the attentive look at individual characteristics allows us to recognize the essence and uniqueness of life.
Plants serve here as a metaphor for beauty and individuality in this world of mass products. The project “The Beauty of Decay” features flowers in the process of withering, in which they reveal themselves once again in their splendor and at the same time in their fragility. Each plant is thereby shaped and formed differently by the world’s influences and thus shows itself in its unique beauty.

The artworks are still lifes and combine three typical aspects of this genre: figurative painting, flower painting, and the reference to mortality. But while most classical flowers still lifes show whole bouquets, Marieluise Barbara Bantel concentrates on individual flowers, which allows her and her works to relate the vanitas motif, which directly points to the transience of life to the individual. At the same time, she expands the admonishing still-life concept with the element of beauty in her series of paintings. But new meaning also emerges the other way round: the idea of beauty is expanded by Bantel to include the dimension of decay. It is precisely in decay that vitality is transformed into the fragile and noble grace of life and its individuality. This gives the pictures in this series a unique depth that goes beyond what is seen, as art demands.

Looking towards decay, one understands that turning away from this theme is not only due to the fear of the transience of life but also a denial of beauty. In this respect, the pictures do not allow any distractions. So there is no need for an “around” that distracts from the beauty that reveals itself in passing and desires our recognition. Therefore, no background was painted on the canvas in this series of paintings. This makes the artworks technically very demanding but at the same time allows us to concentrate fully on a subject that is so often avoided: transience.

All the paintings in the series “The Beauty of Decay” are oil paintings on canvas.

“My enthusiasm for flowers and flower painting has always accompanied me. I attach great importance not only to depicting flowers but also to conveying a deeper meaning.
The contrast between the painted form and the organic world of the plant is a continuous exchange and an important element in my paintings. To depict the floral world in its uniqueness pictorially is left to art.”
-Marieluise Barbara Bantel

MARIELUISE BARBARA BANTEL

Marieluise Bantel is an artist from Baden-Württemberg (Metzingen, Germany) who specializes in painting flowers. She prefers to devote herself to this artistic subject due to her closeness to nature, which can be traced back to her youth in a rural environment and early stays in the countryside in England. Her closeness to nature is also evident in her works. Her paintings capture the imaginative richness of color in the plant world and express the expressiveness and beauty of flowers. However, her flower paintings want to depict, reproduce, and express a more profound reality and statement behind what is displayed.

Marieluise Barbara Bantel studied art at the “Freie Kunstschule Stuttgart – Akademie für Kunst und Design” and graduated with a diploma. She has already received awards for her artistic works (1st place at the Ash Wednesday Art Prize / awarded in the US art magazine International Artist). In Germany, she has already had exhibitions in palaces and castles – among others in the Residence Palace Ludwigsburg, one of the largest and most famous baroque palaces in Germany. Last October, she was represented at the Florence Biennale (Italy) and in November at art3f in Brussels (Belgium). In March 2022, a large exhibition on the series “The Beauty of Decay” will follow in Stuttgart’s “Haus der Wirtschaft,” The building is part of the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Tourism Baden-Württemberg and an institution of the federal state.

Read the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #67 February 2022