Johanna Barthet is synonymous with the portrait genre and has become one of its leading protagonists in Malta. Her first solo exhibition in 2019, Stories Untold, introduced her to the art-loving public as a new voice in a genre that has often been overlooked or looked down upon as a commission-based one.
Her personal way of tackling portraiture didn’t require sitters to pose in her studio. She searched and found her models on magazines and social media platforms like Instagram and gave them new life on her canvas. She became the pictorial storyteller by wresting these individuals away from their printed or pixelled context to impart on them a new existence away from their ‘imprisonment’, as protagonists in stories yet to be told.
Johanna BarthetTwo years later, Barthet’s second solo, Dreamscapes, finds the artist exploring new ground, away from portraiture, in the landscape genre. The title of the exhibition implies a similar approach to her first exhibition in the sense that these landscapes are not documentations of real, geographical places just as most of the people portrayed in Stories Untold originated from an alternative and virtual world.
Some of the landscapes have intimations of the Maltese countryside and its vernacular architecture; others are totally foreign, with mountains and houses with thatched roofs. She explains: “They are not actual places per se. They happen on their own… they are indeed flights of fancy. The paintings are all from my imagination. Sometimes I take photos of a view but up till today, I haven’t gotten down to using them as a reference.”
Unlike Stories Untold, Dreamscapes is therefore not an exercise at reinventing already existing landscapes that one comes across in magazines, tourist postcards or social media sources.
These paintings, a demonstration of Barthet’s love for German Expressionism, sweeping brushstrokes of bright colours, bold compositions and all, reflect the introspective and emotional mood of the artist. Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) landscapes of Gabriele Münter, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexei von Jawlensky and the early pre-abstraction landscapes of Wassily Kandinsky, are evoked as well as the landscapes produced by their contemporaries, the Die Brücke (The Bridge) artists.
They can be regarded as chromatic improvisations, externalising aches for something which our country has forever lost
The Blue Rider (formed in 1909) and The Bridge (formed in 1905) were two artist groups which constitute the basis of the general umbrella term known as German Expressionism. Although the former group was founded by Russian emigrants, namely Kandinsky, von Jawlensky and von Werefkin, together with the German artists Franz Marc, August Macke, Paul Klee and Münter herself, among others, both groups were based in Germany and are considered as German art movements.
“I am most probably subconsciously influenced and inspired by these artists whose works I admire so much.” The series of portrait paintings featured in her first solo were inspired by artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker and Chantal Joffe and one could discern an underlying feminine trait governing Stories Untold, compounded by the fact that they portrayed almost exclusively women and girls. “However, contrary to my portraiture, I cannot attribute feminine viewpoints as a cornerstone of the romantic nature of my Dreamscapes,” Barthet remarks.
From portraiture to landscape
“After attending some painting sessions with fellow artists, where we tackled some landscapes, I one day just started trying my hand at imaginary landscapes of my own,” Barthet observes. This was the point of departure from her comfort zone. “Once I started, it was rather liberating – at first, they didn’t mean that much to me but a way of expressing myself freely with colour. But eventually they took a life of their own and started to flow out of me naturally.”
She needed some respite from the themes of her first solo exhibition which took its toll on the artist even though Stories Untold was a successful exhibition on all counts. She needed to temporarily close one chapter of her artistic career, knowing full well that there will be sequels to it, and re-channel her energy into a new mode of expression. “Portraiture will always remain at my very core, but the landscapes served as a means of escapism and liberation following my first solo portraiture exhibition,” she asserts.
These dreamscapes stray away from the urban and the claustrophobic. They are poetic, extolling the virtues and beauty of open spaces and architecture that complements them. They can be regarded as chromatic improvisations, externalising aches for something which our country has forever lost.
“I live in the centre of a concrete jungle. The view from my studio window is littered with cranes, construction sites and high-rise buildings. I ache for nature we lost, and often allow my mind and spirit to wander free from these harsh realities, to create these ‘chromatic improvisations’ inspired by the colours that surround me within the confines of my own studio,” she sadly concludes.
Dreamscapes will be hosted by Desko, 104, St Lucia Street, Valletta, until July 23. Check the gallery’s Facebook page for opening hours. COVID-19 restrictions apply.
