Barbara Broekman (1955, Amsterdam) works in the border zone between free and
applied arts. Shortly after completing her training as a classical gobelin
weaver, she started to explore the limits of feasibility in weaving as an
artist. She experimented not only with textile, but also with other materials
such as tiles, concrete, lineoleum and plastic. Her works are inspired by her
fascination for chance experiences. Barbara Broekman is interested in the
glimpses of things we catch in the corners of our eyes – things that impose
their presence on us, but which all but elude us when we try to recall them
later. Her colourful, dynamic forms and images are fairly simple when viewed
in isolation, but Broekman combines them into complex compositions in which
colour, movement, rhythm and depth are combined in an intuitive manner. In
each of her works she creates an area of tension between the various details
and their unifying geometric context.
Broekman’s works reflect a number of recurring themes. In the first place
there are the formal principles such as colour, light, movement,
three-dimensionality in a two-dimensional plane and energy in abstraction. But
she also expresses personal emotions in a narrative, more figurative sense,
for example by depicting people in their rich cultural variety. Another of her
key themes is the bond between a mother and her child.
In her applied work, Barbara Broekman searches for ways of meeting functional
demands in an artistic manner. DSM invited Broekman to design a tapestry
expressing the 3P (People, Planet, Profit) and Unlimited.DSM themes. She
responded by combining the pattern of veins in the human body, a satelite
photo of the earth and the blue of the DSM logo into a breathtaking
composition of form, colour, motion and energy symbolizing DSM’s unlimited
approach.
The key theme of her latest works - a series of ten in which she has woven
printed canvas into varying patterns - is the stereotype Dutch landscape. The
former strict division between nature and culture has disappeared in today’s
Dutch landscape. By interweaving representations of natural and urban areas
according to varying patterns, Broekman has created her own typically Dutch
landscapes. They are urban landscapes that do not actually exist, but which do
immediately evoke images of the Netherlands. This unmistakeable association
with the Netherlands is underlined by the colours used, which are dominated by
sober grey, black/white and blue. The works were created by printing photos on
canvas and then literally interweaving them in different patterns to obtain
the kind of fragmentary compositions typical of Barbara’s oeuvre: when viewed
from a distance they look like abstract creations, but as you approach the
works you will discover ever more recognizable elements.
Barbara Broekman has been working as a professional artist since 1982. She
trained at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and the California
College of Arts and Crafts (MFS program) in Berkeley. She has received
assignments from ministries, municipal authorities, companies and private art
lovers. Works by Barbara Broekman can be admired in several collections, such
as those of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Textile Museum in Tilburg
(Netherlands) and the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.
