Beate E. Renner: Journey to the East | the project | "le passage" | curriculum | exhibitions | works in collections
"Journey to the East"
Oman (Muscat): 11th up to 21st of May 1998
Articles in the press
The Sultanate of Oman is her second place of exhibition
A German artist retraces the maritime Silk Road with a series of exhibitions of paintings.
A German artist, Beate Renner, follows the sea route once taken by ships in search of spices and precious fabrics. She is organizing a series of exhibitions of paintings in six different stages. These travelling exhibitions will begin in Oman and the Maldives, continue via Malaysia and Brunei and end in Indonesia and Tonga at the beginning of 2000. The Sultanate of Oman is one of the first ports of call of her artistic journey as well as the Maldives where all merchant ships formerly dropped anchor on their way to the Orient.
The exhibition "Journey to the East" was inaugurated on 11th May in the premises of The Omani Society for Fine Arts, under the auspices of His Excellency Ali Bin Massoud Al Sunaidy, Under Secretary for Commerce and Industry. The artist hopes to promote through this project a positive image of the Omani Culture.
Each exhibition will be an individual event; each stage of the project will present original works, the inspiration for which will nonetheless be drawn from a common source - the Silk Road. "Journey to the East" links different geographical entities in pictorial space and sets out to question, through the confrontation and exchange of unknown gazes, the pertinence of contemporary Western art in an area destined to become the new centre of the world.
Beate Renner was born in 1961 in Germany. Besides fine arts, she studied theater aesthetics and literature. She is holder of a Masters-degree (1987) and of a P.h.D.w.T. ( 1998). She has participated in numerous exhibitions and has had one-man-shows in several cities and countries: Paris, Berlin, Tunis, New-York and the Maldives. The current exhibition is taking place at The Omani Society for Fine Arts and run until 21st of May 1998.
Khalfane Al Zidi (Al Watan, 5.5.1998, translated from Arabic)
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The Omani Society for Fine Arts is hosting the exhibition " Journey to the East " of German artist Beate Renner
This week the Omani Society for Fine Arts is opening an exhibition called " Journey to the East " with paintings by German artist Beate Renner. The exhibition will take place under the auspices of H.E. Eng. Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Under Secretary for Commerce and Industry, and will be opened in two days on Monday at 7 p.m. in the big exhibition hall of the Society in Shati Al Qurum.
The artist was born in 1961. Besides fine arts, she studied theater aesthetics and literature starting 1982 and obtained a Masters-degree in 1987 as well as her P.h.D.w.T. in 1988. () She has been working as a professional artist since 1986 and has had several exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, New York, Tunis and the Maldives.
Beate Renner said to the columnist of "This week's painting" that the current exhibition is part of a project entitled " Journey to the East ", consisting of a series of art exhibitions in six different places or stages. The project started at the beginning 1998 in the Maldives and is niw taking place in the Sultanate of Oman, and will go on to Malaysia and Brunei (1998-1999) as well as Indonesia and Tonga (1999-2000).
"Each exhibition will be an individual event," she told us, "each stage of the project will present original works, the inspiration of which will nonetheless be drawn from a common source - the Silk Road once taken by ships in search of precious things, which today implies a voyage to the Pacific and an encounter with various island and Islamic cultures in different geographical locations. The project links geographical entities in pictorial space and sets out to question, through the confrontation and exchange of unknown gazes, the pertinence of contemporary Western art in an area destined to become the new centre of the world."
(Al-Shabiba, 9.5.1998, translated from Arabic)
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Avant-garde paintings
H.E. Eng. Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy inaugurates the exhibition of German artist Beate Renner
The "Journey to the East" passes through six places, the Sultanate of Oman being among the first.
Yesterday the exhibition of German artist Beate Renner was inaugurated in the large gallery of The Omani Society of Fine Arts. The art exhibition will last ten days. The opening took place under the auspices of H.E. Eng. Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Under Secretary for Commerce and Industry, and was assisted by numerous artists, Society members and art connoisseurs.
" Journey to the East ", which is the title of the exhibition, consists of thirty-four mainly abstract paintings in which both color contrasts and color harmonies prevail. "Journey to the East," says the artist, "is a cultural and artistic project consisting of a series of exhibitions which take place in six different countries. I have chosen the Sultanate of Oman as one of the first ports of call. Then I shall go to Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Tonga (1999-2000)."
She continues: "Each exhibition will be an individual event ; each stage of the project will present original works, the inspiration for which will nonetheless be drawn from a common source - the maritime Silk Road. " The project focuses on countries, or places, where contemporary art has not the same status as it has in the West. The German artist thinks that the project could help develop contacts and bring about another meeting between these different worlds. To mark the end of such a voyage, she would like to publish a catalogue retracing the steps of the six experiences and to hold a retrospective exhibition at UNESCO and/or the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris).
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One of the first steps of her discovery of the maritime Silk Road
Inauguration of the "Journey to the East" of German artist Beate Renner
Yesterday evening, the exhibition " Journey to the East " of German artist Beate Renner was inaugurated by H.E. Eng. Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Under Secretary for Commerce and Industry, in the premises of The Omani Society for Fine Arts.
The exhibition is one of the first steps of a series of exhibitions which the artist is holding to retrace the maritime Silk Road once taken by ships in search of precious things. These travelling exhibitions started in Oman and the Maldives, continue via Malaysia and Brunei and end in Indonesia and Tonga at the beginning of 2000. This route today implies an encounter with various island and Islamic cultures in different geographical localities.
The artist would like these exhibitions to focus on countries, or places, where contemporary art has not the same status as it has in the West, or even in other Asian countries whose economic framework has paved the way for a recent development of contemporary art. The project also hopes to help to promote a positive image of the Islamic world. It should end with the publication of a catalogue at UNESCO and/or the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris).
Beate Renner was born in 1961 in Germany. Besides fine arts, she studied theater aesthetics and literature and obtained a Masters-degree in 1987 and her P.h.D.w.T. in 1988. She has had various exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Tunis, New-York and the Maldives. The current exhibition will last until 21st May and is open mornings and evenings. Several art connoisseurs, government officials as well as members of The Omani Society for Fine Arts assisted the opening yesterday.
(Khalfane Al Zeïdi, translated from Arabic)
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The Abstract Form of the Oriental Soul
It was under this title that Abbas Youssef, a Bahrain painter, published an article in an Oman newspaper on Beate Renner's exhibition: "Journey to the East," which ran from May 11th to the 21st at the headquarters of The Omani Society for Fine Arts in Muscat.
After introducing the project such as Beate Renner has defined it, Abbas Youssef asks:
"Does the Silk Road represent the cultural meeting point between the various civilizations found along its path? If that is the artist's (B. Renner's) interrogation, and that is what we observe in this exhibition, the idea of looking for a point of junction is there, and it is a legitimate one. The attempt to explore the cultural soul, the rites, the social customs, even the climate of the Orient is present and disseminated in all of the thirty-four pictures in the exhibition. When faced with this fascination, we may well ask, for example, what its relationship could be with Delacroix's, Matisse's, and Paul Klee's uninhibited love for the Orient?
Beate Renner loses herself in her obsession with light and shadow. What can be perceived by the senses and what is occult. Joy before innocence and sadness before unhappiness. Space enlarges itself horizontally, meeting up with an escape to the vertical. A psychological tension within Renner leads her to an ascencion mixed with dreams, and to a dilatation that gives to color and to space a freedom that allows for a liberation whenever one work meets another, creating a panoramic, oriental atmosphere where the four seasons - Spring and Summer, Autumn and Winter - and colors (green with turquoise) mix inside a somber light. A work that is constantly changing, which speaks to us, and which arrives at sharp contradictions made concrete by traits and by space."
The author of this article then goes on to a brief discussion of Beate Renner's career.
Abbas Youssef, translated and condensed from a critical essay published in both the Omani "Al-Wattan"-newspaper and the Bahrain newspaper "Al-Ayam".
in "Oman Daily Observer", 11.5. 1998 Muscat/Mascate - OMAN:
MUSCAT - Commerce and Industry Under-Secretary Ali bin Masoud ai Sunaidi will preside at the openin,g of an art exhibition featuring the works of German artist Beate Elvira Renner at the Omani Society for Fine Arts, Shati al Qurum, this evening.
The event is part of an artistic and cultural project entitled 'Journey to the East', involving a series of exhibitions of paintings in six countries - Oman, the Maldives, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Tonga. Beginning in Oman and Maldives this year, these travelling exhibitions will continue via Malaysia and Brunei in 1998/99 and end in Indonesia and the Kingdom of Tonga in 1999/2000.
Each exhibition is an individual event, featuring the artist's original works, inspiration for which is drawn from a common source - the Silk Road -t he route once taken by ships in search of spices and precious fabrics. According to the organisers, the underlying theme wouid imply an encounter with various island and Islamic cultures in different geographical locations.
Each exhibition is preceded by a two week stay in the hosting country, enabling the artist to meet the people of the country, to absorb the atmosphere and culture and create a work of art.
Renner, who has displayed her paintings in Paris, Male, Berlin, Tunis
and New York, studied art, sculpture and drawing at California and Paris.
Beate E. Renner: Journey to the East | the project | "le passage" | curriculum | exhibitions | works in collections