Dr. Dietrich Jörn Weder about Harald de Bary

The German painter Harald de Bary is constantly searching for new means of artistic expression - and has been doing so for seventy years. Year after year, de Bary, who was born in Frankfurt am Main, broadens his artistic horizons - recently in the clear endeavour to hone to perfection the expertise acquired over the years that finds expression in the outstanding quality of his work.

The seriousness and intensity with which he approaches his art is evident in all his paintings. Sometimes it is simply the colours that determine the content of the picture, while at other times it is the energetic strokes of the charcoal crayon that create his unique artistic language. Both elements are often to be found in one picture. Less often, the paintings include a human figure, the sign of the cross or even the figure of Christ himself, and when they do appear they are generally indistinct, as if covered with a veil.

The impressions gathered during the artist's travels in Africa and his crossing of the Sahara can still be found in his work today.

For forty years, de Bary has worked on and off in his studio in a converted schoolhouse in Ireland, where he says his painting is influenced by the landscape, the light and the seasons. He welcomes people who are interested in his art and want to see for themselves how he works. The wealth of art on view makes even the longest journey worthwhile.

The biography "Harald de Bary. Leben und Werk" (Harald de Bary. Life and Work) written by the art historian Johann Konrad Eberlein and published by Axel Dielmann-Verlag, Frankfurt, in 2006 chronicles the painter's artistic development and includes a complete list of his works up to 2003. It describes his beginnings in Art Informel, the prevailing style of the time and a style, which for him and many others symbolised a break away from the past and into new territory. In the following years he always pursued his own path. See for yourself by looking at the plates in his biography or by visiting him - either in person in his studio or here on his website.

Dr. Dietrich Jörn Weder