Paintings by Annette Wessel,
Gretel Schmitt-Buse und Gerta Bauer
Joint exhibition in the Town Hall Gallery

Castrop – Rauxel,
11th November - 16th Dezember. 2007

Pictures by Annette Wessel
in Burg Dringenberg – Bad Driburg
13th May - 1st July 2007

An exhibition of predominantly large-format pictures held in the Rittersaal at Burg Dringenberg.

Pictures by Annette Wessel
at the Chocolate Museum, Cologne
12th Oktober - 19th November 2006

Extracts from the introductory address by Regina Monczynski of Lage, Westphalia, at the “Appetite for Art” exhibition:

"While I was doing a course at the European Academy of Fine Arts in Trier — I think it was in 1997 — I was very struck as I painted by a woman who was working away at her canvases with great energy and singlemindedness. I was immediately captivated by the powerful, intense colours in her pictures. We got talking, and I thus came to know Annette Wessel, so full of life and sponaneity.

During the intervening years joint workshops have repeatedly brought us together, and we have become firm friends in the process. On such occasions I am always impressed by the extreme concentration with which she goes about her work. As her world of shapes and colours evolves in each of her paintings she continually and purposefully refines and redefines it anew. She remains constantly flexible and fully alert to any unexpected possibilities opened up by her developing picture. In order to escape any rigid habits of mind or eye she frequently twists and turns her canvases and thus hits on new approaches which she then tries out, sometimes appearing surprised at her own courage. Thereafter she either abandons her new departure or else decides to go with a new line or shape or surface. She thus rethinks and reworks her canvases many times over. At the end of such a process, when she feels that things have taken a real step forward, one can readily see that she is exhausted but happy. For me, many of her pictures radiate an intense vitality.

So why are some of Annette Wessel’s pictures here in the Chocolate Museum? What does art have to do with chocolate?

The exhibition is called “An Appetite for Art”. It is pleasurable to have one’s appetite whetted. And it is pleasure that links art and chocolate. I myself have always taken great pleasure in Annette Wessel’s pictures, which for me have a wonderfully sensuous and positive aura. They are tasteful in an authentic way, complex without being over-worked, intensely colourful without being gaudy. The creative tensions within her pictures are well-balanced and harmonious. Above all, however, they move me — and to my mind that is the measure of a truly successful picture.

As you progress through the exhibition here and look at Annette Wessel’s works, I suggest that you reflect on these pictures by asking yourself what particular senses they arouse in you. Do you associate certain colours with sensations of taste? Are you even reminded of certain smells? Do the pictures evoke associations with physical objects?

The idea of presenting contemporary art on Vivani Organic Chocolate is in my view a highly successful marketing strategy on the part of the Ludwig Weinrich company — rather along the lines of the principle that quality on the inside also requires quality on the outside.

I wish Annette Wessel a successful exhibition, and you, dear guests, a visit full of pleasure and sensual delight.”

Regina Monczynski