By Jean de Bengy, Inspector of Artistic Creation at the Ministry of Culture, France, 2003
'Metaphysical' is the word that comes to mind when looking at the works of Beate Renner.
In the literal sense of the term, first, for the Nature that she uses as a subject finds another definition, a different 'physique' here, owing to her brushwork; projected into another universe, Nature borrows forms and colors from another idea of space.
Everything in her paintings is not merely a reflection of reality, but infinitely small movements, miniscule changes and tiny variations also effect an overall change that upsets the very aspect of reality so as to lead it toward a certain aspect of the unknown, of the permanent and never perceived, of the immediate yet distant, of the apparent yet invisible.
It is not surprising that Beate Renner enjoys playing with the way her paintings are looked at: The top becomes the bottom, the waves become clouds, the trees become roots in the water, for they are neither one nor the other, but all at the same time; impossible Nature turns into improbable Nature, hence possible, probable thinking, in the sense of pondering, questioning the reality of the world, the quality of the gaze, the truth of the representation, the eternal debate about object and subject; the model and the work are thus investigated, once more, but so discreetly and pertinently.
The possibility of infinite discovery, of disconcerting exploration, can therefore be surmised from a motionless voyage through a closed space in which painting opens up breathtaking paths.
'Metaphysical' in the philosophical sense of the term, too, for this omnipresent Nature, from which we come and of which we are part, despite - and each day a little more, because of - the advances made by science, remains a mystery constantly open to interrogation.
Beate Renner's inifinitely subtle play on opening and shutting, enclosed and open spaces, suggests other means of investigation, an extremely new medium, that of a physicist or chemist who, not content with his own equipment, invents a hither to unknown process, enabling another approach, altering one's vision of the immediate, offering the joy and fear of absolute innovation.
Though all new knowledge stems from manipulation, brutality and destruction, Beate acts only with gentleness and airy tenderness. Therein is perhaps the secret of success - that such violent modifications can be born out of nothing but suavity, extreme care and the deepest respect for fragility. This rejection of force, these forms of action close to silence and absence, are thus infused with a rare eloquence and an absolute presence.
Translated by Pamela Hargreaves.