Bettina Weiß Redefines Abstract Art Through Geometry and Intuition

Exploring The Intuitive Construction Of Abstract Landscapes And The Interplay Of Time, Space, And Color In Her Work

Bettina Weiß discusses her intuitive process, the use of geometry as a visual language, and how color, texture, and time shape her abstract landscapes and emotional narratives.

Bettina Weiß is a visionary artist whose work bridges the realms of geometry, abstraction, and emotional resonance. Born in Flensburg, North Germany, and now based in Berlin, Weiß has cultivated a remarkable career that spans continents and artistic disciplines. Her journey, from studying under renowned painters Rob Scholte and Leiko Ikemura to earning her Meisterschüler degree, reflects a deep commitment to exploring the boundaries of artistic expression. As an active member of SCOTTY, a vibrant artist-run space in Berlin, she has not only contributed to the city’s dynamic art scene but also curated and organized exhibitions that challenge and inspire. Weiß’s work has been showcased in prestigious galleries and public installations worldwide, from Berlin to Los Angeles, Seoul, and South Korea, earning her a place in both public and private collections.

Weiß’s paintings are a testament to her mastery of form, color, and texture. Her intuitive yet methodical approach to creating geometric landscapes transforms the canvas into a portal of discovery, where microcosms and macrocosms converge. Her ability to layer oil and acrylic paints, revealing traces of her process, imbues her work with a sense of time and transformation. Weiß’s art invites viewers to explore the interplay between order and chaos, rationality and emotion, offering a visual language that is both universal and deeply personal. Her dedication to pushing the boundaries of abstraction and her innovative techniques make her a true force in contemporary art.

Bettina Weiß is a masterful artist whose innovative techniques and geometric abstractions evoke profound emotional and intellectual engagement.

Can you describe the process you go through when exploring the geometry of ornaments in your paintings?

I describe my way of working as intuitively constructive. I start work without a preliminary sketch and forbid myself to know what the finished picture should look like in the end. I need a fresh start so that I can invent something completely new every time. Individual areas of oil paint take a few days to dry, so I always work on several paintings at the same time. Technically, I start with acrylic paint and later add oil paint. The pictorial space that I open up with my decisions changes with each additional layer and form. These overlap, are partially cancelled out again, but still shine through. This allows the picture to grow; visible traces and “mistakes” are desirable parts of the work. When the picture begins to “radiate”, i.e. emit energy, it is finished. This sometimes takes a long time.

What inspired you to focus on geometric shapes as the basic building blocks of your artwork?

I consciously began to depict landscapes and environments in geometric shapes during my studies. The way I do it today has developed over a long period of time. I started back then with geometric abstract landscape backgrounds. These were worlds in which creatures, mostly animals, romped around. Back then, I used this formal language as a kind of “quotation”. I read a lot in my childhood and youth, including a lot of comics. This was initially reflected in my incipient interest in art, especially pop art and then surrealism. At some point I realised that I was actually interested in the supposed backgrounds of the pictures, that I had to reduce and focus. Basically, I work on the depiction of external and internal landscapes. For me, basic geometric elements are like an alphabet with which I can develop and play through these ideas.

How do you see the relationship between your use of geometric elements and the concepts of microcosm and macrocosm in your work?

Geometry, which translates from the ancient Greek as “land measurement”, enables me to create a simplified, abstracted representation of intuitively constructed spaces, whose further properties I interpret by working on the surface. The forms are relatively clearly defined, even if I can dissolve them again by removing them. Scientific models and laws make the world, the cosmos, life and the interior of the body more comprehensible. The fact that orders and forms repeat themselves, on a large and very small scale, has been clear for a very long time, at the latest with Johannes Kepler. I am thinking of the Fibonacci number sequence and its connection to the golden ratio, which can be found everywhere in nature.

The geometric elements offer the possibility of a kind of “order of the world”. A task that can never be completed. It is a playful approach to constantly invent new variations and manifest them in painting. This creates small portals and gates for me, new spaces, sections of another, new world. Geometry is the model for the depiction of these cosms, whether large or small.

Could you elaborate on how you incorporate color and texture into your hard-edge technique with oil and acrylic paints?

I work with a cut-out technique and use tape and palette knife. I build up the surfaces with acrylic paint and, in the final layer, oil paint. Sometimes I also use putty, inks and pastels to open up surfaces that seem too closed to me. My favourite surfaces are canvas and above all wood. The colours of a painting change in the process. As I couldn’t imitate the actual materiality with preliminary sketches, I leave them out. My test field is the painting itself. If older forms shine through in the background of the layers, that’s fine by me, as it makes the process of production more comprehensible and yet more mysterious, in the sense that something else was once there.

In what ways do you think your artistic journey and development have influenced the themes and techniques present in your recent works?

For a long time, the subject of my work was the depiction of states, snapshots of emotional worlds. Animals, especially their silhouettes, functioned as representatives in abstract nature. The landscapes were visualised using stripes, dots or patterns, which I saw as a way of universally representing the surroundings at the time. At some point I realised that the creatures were too much, too illustrative and also dominant. So I simply left them out. So the former background now became my foreground. I remember how happy I was about the decision, it was a liberation. I realised that I was now getting to the core of what actually interested me. I also changed my technique as a result. Whereas I had previously worked a lot with glazes, brushes and wax, I now used the pure tape technique with a palette knife. Since then I have been trying to visualise the tension between a surface and the ground, between the rational and the irrational, and to appeal to the viewer on an emotional level.

How do you envision the interaction between time and space within the context of your art, and how do you express these concepts visually?

I am interested in physical phenomena, The nature of space and time, which are so different in physics than in our experience. Stretchable, compressible, possibly not even continuous. I am also interested in human intervention in evolution through biotechnology. This is actually an intervention in time, because it is uncertain whether and when such changes would otherwise have become established through mutations. These aspects resonate in my work.

It appears visible in my paintings through my techniques: by building up the material in many different layers; and sometimes deconstructing them again. This is done additively by overlapping, as well as removing by sanding, scratching and washing. These actions are visibly inscribed in the painting. The grown image tells of the process of creation. The newly defined space in the picture has visibly stored time.

EDITOR’S HIGHLIGHTS