Marieluise Barbara Bantel

Introduction: The Beauty of Decay

“Everything has its time, the blossoming, blooming and fading. And although these are different states, they are seamlessly interwoven by their flowing transition. The beauty of the ever-changing plants wants to capture and delight us; In the phase of withering, the plant again shows itself in all its splendor and, at the same time, in its fragility. In its effects of light and shadow, it rears up against nature and expected rigidity.” – Marieluise Barbara Bantel – (“Marieluise Bantel” in American Art Collector Magazine, June/July Issue (2020): p. 7)

How can one document time in a still image? How can we depict yesterday, today, and tomorrow, in one single picture? How can one analyze this continuous passing of time and its lingering effects on material reality and life? Marieluise Bantel is set to take on this challenge. Even more, she dedicates her life to fulfilling this purpose. Her weapons of choice? Oil, turpentine, canvas, paintbrushes, and… time.

Whereas photography documents a snapshot of reality, painting seems to escape this time-bound element. As the process of painting is slower, the medium itself works slower. The image becomes slower, and the spectator’s approach and viewing time slow down enormously.

Everything seems to have its time. Marieluise Bantel takes on different states of time. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The blossoming, the blooming, and fading. Beauty resides in the flowing transition of one state to another. Her metaphor of choice is the still life—flowers, to be more precise. However, the decay of these flowers does not evoke despair, as we are confronted by the inexorability of the transience character of things. They delight us. They offer us comfort and solace in the beauty of the passing.

The Story of Marieluise Barbara Bantel: Closer to Nature

Born in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Marieluise Barbara Bantel is a contemporary painter residing and working in Metzingen, Germany. She studied Free Painting at the Freie Kunstschule in Stuttgart, at the Akademie for Kunst und Design. She graduated with flying colors before taking on the national and international contemporary art scene.

During her childhood, Marieluise Barbara Bantel grew up in a rural environment. Some early stays in England enforced her natural connection and closeness with nature. In doing so, Bantel looks at nature differently. She ‘knows’ nature, getting closer and closer to it through observation.

For many, a flower is a beautiful ornament of nature. But for the German painter, the flower is so much more. It is a celebration of nature’s richness. A contemporary cornucopia of expressiveness and beauty. It also indicates her profoundly rooted and personal connection with nature—a metaphor to explore. The splendor of a flower tells Bantel more than just its visual guise. And it is Marieluise Barbara Bantel’s avocation to capture the short-lived beauty of what the flowers and plants are telling us.

In 2013, Bantel took on the art world with two memorable shows at renowned institutions in Germany, encompassing the Filseck Castle in Goeppingen and the Residential Palace in Ludwigsburg. Marieluise Bantel continued to showcase her works nationally and internationally. In 2020, she was recognized as the winner of the Ash Wednesday Art Prize in Stuttgart. Earlier this year, Bantel participated in the XIII Florence Biennale in Firenze, Italy.

Marieluise Barbara Bantel: An Anthology of Works

The foundation of Marieluise Barbara Bantel’s oeuvre is a strong (visual) knowledge of flowers and their development. After an extensive study of numerous observations, Bantel collects a variety of flowers before drying them. She examines the slow decay process, in which the colors continue to shift and develop, as does the color, transparency, and expression.

A certain simplicity marks Bantel’s paintings. She focuses on the painted state of transience, often keeping the background untouched, apart from a subtle touch of the shadow drop. By doing so, the flowers achieve a trompe-l’oeil character, empowering their expressiveness, and avoiding distractions or inferior influences.

What is left is accuracy, purity, and sincerity. Her works open new doors when it comes to the transitoriness of life. Entries do not lead to fear or anguish due to life’s insurmountable finiteness but to solace and beauty. Doing so, Marieluise Barbara Bantel shows us the denial of transience in life is also a denial of beauty. Instead of trying to avoid or escape it, one becomes able and convinced to embrace it. This embracement does not only empower us when it comes to getting closer to nature but also to find harmony with our very own nature.

Discover more on Marieluise Barbara Bantel by visiting her website here.

Last Updated on August 1, 2023