Madonnas everywhere
Swiss artist Annelies Štrba’s exhibition opens tonight at ETH Zurich’s Collection of Prints and Drawings. Her contemporary take on images of the Madonna are presented in contrast with prints from Old Masters.
Swiss artist Annelies Štrba has long been known for her videos and photo montages. Her work is always very personal and reflects a great deal of herself. So why is the artist fascinated with a universal subject like the Madonna? This is no contradiction: Štrba has been drawn to representations of Mary since her early childhood, explains Konstanze Forst-Battaglia, curator of the exhibition. Moreover, the artist’s private life also flows through this exhibition – portraits of her daughter are hidden in a series of images, for example.
Štrba created most of the works exclusively for this exhibition at the Collection of Prints and Drawings. Having photographed all kinds of representations of Mary in churches and chapels for years, the artist is now taking a digital approach to these images, reinventing them using an unusually bright, even garish colour palette, radical compositions and blurred lines. She then prints the results on canvas or paper and partially paints over the works with gold paint. The exhibition is surprisingly fresh and light. The three series of images exhibited here are hung closely together, bringing to mind a wall of votives in a church. At the same time, it shows the serial approach that runs through Štrba's entire work. Together with the large-format individual pieces, the series of images reflect Štrba's intense interest in Christianity’s tradition of representation.
Contrast with the Old Masters
A special feature of the exhibition is Forst-Battaglia’s selection of Madonna representations by the old masters from the Collection of Prints and Drawing’s rich collection. The selection is displayed in the corridors of the ETH building to contrast with Štrba's works in the main room – it includes several sheets of Albrecht Dürer’s Life of the Virgin (1502–1511) and the particularly impressive prints of Martin Schongauer, such as The Madonna and Child in a Courtyard (approx.1470–1482) – and illustrates the great iconographic diversity of the subject. The prints depicting St. Luke, for example, make a clever reference to the legend that Mary appeared before him in order that he could paint her portrait – the first in the history of art.
The contrast with the Old Masters underscores the extent to which the artist has detached herself from the religious context. Štrba takes a contemporary look at the figure of Mary, focusing on the range of variation but individualising them through their reinvention. She is fascinated by the idea of how many representations of the Madonna as a wife and mother are possible, creating something current and tangible out of the old motif that can be experienced immediately. “According to Štrba, there as many Madonnas as there are types of women in this world,” summarises Forst-Battaglia. Visitors may suddenly recognise their neighbour or the cashier at Migros among the many faces. Madonnas everywhere.
Annelies Štrba – Madonnas
The exhibition opens today, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 at 6 pm. The exhibition runs from 20 August to 19 October 2014. Opening times: Monday to Friday 10 am – 4:45 pm, entrance free. The guided tours Art at Noon on Mondays are held for each current exhibition. Location: Collection of Prints and Drawings, ETH Zentrum HG E 52, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zurich.