Hildegard Wagner-Harms

Hildegard Wagner-Harms, born 1941 in Neumünster (D), graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Kiel. In 1972, she created an Art Gallery. It was during the 23 years of this activity that she discovered her vocation as an artist. Since 1988 she has exhibited throughout Europe. Since 1994 she lives and works in Strasbourg. 

The series of paintings presented to you is called “Sand-Bilder" (works based on sand). It bears witness to her tireless activity, the richness of her creative ideas and her conception of art as a continual evolution. Each completed work carries within itself the germ of the next and constantly demands a critical attitude towards its ideas, principles and techniques. 

The idea of using sand was born during trips during which she discovered that, under the influence of the natural forces of the climate, it revealed infinite diversity in its color and consistency. The yellowish one from Morocco, the almost orange one from Dubai or even, all red, from Namibia. 

It is also about the variability of the shades of the sand in a changing light, much more striking than it was known from the color pigmentation. There then emerged a constant for the artist to use sand as a pigmentation for his paintings. Next to smooth painted surfaces, the sand looks more or less plastic. To increase this contrast, Hildegard also uses other materials: stones, shells ...