Schneider, Barbara
Biography:
Barbara Schneider was born in Thun (Switzerland) in 1953. Since her studies in teaching with a focus on art and design at the University of Bern in 1977, she taught art to adolescents until 1998 and then exclusively to adults. In 2001 she was trained as a stage designer, and in 2002 she obtained a Swiss diploma as an “adult educator HF”. Since 1998 she has had her own studio and exhibits intensively. She lives and works in Grasswil (Switzerland).
The artist’s oeuvre is extensive and incorporates several series. In recent years, Barbara Schneider has been increasingly occupied with so-called soul portraits, i.e. representations of the face and being of a human being. These representations are interested in more than just the visible surface of a human figure. Other artists may be concerned with depicting general types of people or character traits. Barbara Schneider, on the other hand, works on the special individuality of a human being, which is actually not comprehensible, as the dictum from ancient philosophy says: “Individuum ineffabile est”. The artist approaches the ineffable, intangible and particular of human nature, namely its living soul, by referring to it through the multi-layered application of oil painting. In order to bring out this mystery of life, the radiance of the soul in the painting, she is guided both by her intuition and her rationality: Technically speaking, through a not entirely controllable application of the first layers and a controlled reworking in the upper layers. Her paintings show portraits of souls in a contemplative grace, which place a person in his temporality – thus superficially making him appear old or young – but which have left behind all temporality due to his eternally translucent soul in the picture.
Since 2023, Barbara Schneider has been represented internationally by LDXArtodrome Gallery.
