3205
Winterauktionen 24.–25.11.2023
Semmer, Bettina
Born 1955 Düsseldorf, lives and works in Berlin.
«Probe 2 (sample 2)».
Oil and egg tempera on canvas. Verso signed and dated 2023.
H 80, B 80 cm (support). Unframed.
It was the medical efficacy of Berlin or Prussian blue that particularly inspired Bettina Semmer: «Registered by the WHO as an essential medicine, the substance can be used as an antidote for radioactive caesum poisoning. True to her artistic spirit, an in lieu of ingesting the medication, Semmer sought to absorb the detoxifying substances through the skin by the way of the paint. Hence, the paint is first directly applied to the skin; then - by using the body as a brush - the idea is fixed to the canvas as body print.»
Anica Piontek, Blue in Mind - Mind in blue, in: Bettina Semmer (Ed.), Bettina Semmer, With an essay by Ludwig Seyfarth, Berlin 2023, p. 176.
Provenance: private collection Berlin.
Literature: Bettina Semmer (Ed.), Bettina Semmer, With an essay by Ludwig Seyfarth, Berlin 2023, p. 170.

Condition report