Bettina van Haaren

The painter, draftswoman, and graphic designer Bettina van Haaren got her inspiration for the title, “Punctured Glades” from a poem by Paul Celan. With the word “punctured ,” an ostensible idyll is turned into the opposite. Her pictorial worlds are similarly paradoxical. The works of the artist combine collage-like self-portraits of unsparing accuracy with old-master-like examinations of props from her studio such as fruits, preserved animals, furs, or fabrics. Her works arise from lengthy observation and careful probing of the relationships of bodies to the world. Underlying each work is the assumption that the body is the starting point and measure of all human perception and experience, that visual expression is always self-reflection on being human. The new book by Bettina van Haaren mainly presents works of the last four years.