Barbara Schaefer
Biographical Info BIOGRAPHY: Barbara Rae Schaefer has called Milwaukee home since 2019 and is happily ensconced in the Clock Tower Building of the Historic Water Tower District overlooking Lake Michigan. Originally from Duluth, MN (b.1950), she left for New York City on a Whitney Museum Painting Fellowship after graduating from the University of Minnesota, Mpls (BFA-1972) and went on to receive a degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY (MFA-1974). Barbara actively participated in the cultural renaissance of Brooklyn for the next several decades and exhibited her paintings extensively in the burgeoning Manhattan art enclaves of Soho, Chelsea and the East Village, as well as in galleries and museums across the US and abroad; twice representing the United States at the Salon D’Automne in Paris, France. ARTIST STATEMENT: Conceptually, my work explores the essence of life, time and space greatly influenced by the discoveries of modern science and mathematics. As inner and outer worlds are made visible through microscopes and telescopes, my paintings portray a universe in constant motion, with calligraphic and hieroglyphic motifs endlessly repeating themselves through the secrets of fractal geometric patterns-once deemed to be pure chance, while sending out mysterious text messages from the depths of my soul. The physicality of the materials themselves is integral to my paintings. There is a great “joie de vivre” and energy expressed through the pouring of oil paint combined with dry pigments and layers of alkyd varnish glazes onto the linen canvas or board. Once the creative spark is ignited, I allow each painting to self-create and tell its story. My style is uniquely my own but echoes the major movements of abstract and nonobjective art arising and flourishing in the 20th Century and now continuing to expand into the 21st Century: action and color field painting, minimal art, lyrical and abstract expressionism.
Level Southeast Wisconsin Chapter
Membership Type Member