Tango and longing: two new exhibitions in Steinebach town hall

Created: 06/13/2022, 03:00 p.m

At work: In Steinebach, Monika Krüger mainly shows pictures from her pandemic refuge El Hiero.

© private

The artists Carola Macher and Monika Krüger exhibit their works in the town hall of Steinebach.

Among other things, they tell of tango dancers - and of longing.

Steinebach – "Save the bees" is the title of a painting that the artist Carola Macher is currently presenting in the town hall in Steinebach.

In sunny, honey-yellow and fiery orange tones, she spreads out a wide field like a cloth on the large-format canvas, violet trees stand out in contrast to the background of the summery expanse.

The artist deliberately opted for an alienated color scheme.

"I don't want everything to look like it's been eaten all the time," she says confidently.

But she can also be realistic.

A shady forest path leads into the depths, the trees line the path like a theater curtain.

Fleecy clouds on a blue sky float light as a feather over wide fields, and a dark arched window appears “mysterious”, as the work is called, due to the sand worked into the façade and casually thrown splashes of blue-green paint.

The artist, who started with watercolor painting and tends more and more towards abstraction, has been a member of the "Art Friends Wörthsee" since 2015.

The Kunstverein presents a group exhibition and a member's individual exhibition every year.

So this year it's Carola Macher, who lives in Steinebach.

She actually comes from a medical profession, but has been working on her artistic development for years and attends summer academies and painting courses.

The Tyrolean shows almost photo-realistic pictures, mostly of children and young people.

But she also likes to capture movement, the eroticism and devotion of tango dancers, for example, who fill the entire screen with their expansive steps and the wide swinging dresses of the women.

Usually the background is a dark stage on which the dancers shine in the picturesque light.

"Monika has more stamina, I have to rip!" says Carola Macher with a laugh.

She prefers landscape pictures.

Because: "It just works." The vivacious artist emphasizes that she can best switch off her brain when spontaneously capturing a landscape.

“I have to try myself,” she says.

She knows how much her friend Monika Krüger suffered from loneliness during the pandemic.

Carola Macher prefers realistic landscapes in her work.

© private

Their pictures from this time are pure longing pictures.

They reflect existential loneliness, which is heightened to infinity by a figure by the sea dreaming into the distance.

Monika Krüger's retreat was her vacation home in El Hierro during the pandemic.

From here she brought back the painting of a blossoming fire tree in glowing colours.

The two visit each other regularly in their studios.

Carola Macher's studio was recently located directly on the shore of the Pilsensee, of which there is a very picturesque winter picture.

The exhibition runs until June 26, Saturday and Sunday one of the two artists is always present.

It is open on weekends from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., on weekdays during the opening hours of the town hall.

Astrid Amelungse-Kurth