Ilse Schreiber-Noll in her exhibition "Only History Remains", Beacon NY, 2024
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Ilse Schreiber-Noll IIse Schreiber-Noll was born in Germany. After coming to the United States, she received her MFA at Purchase College SUNY, NY. Here she studied and taught with the late Uruguayan- American visual artist, Antonio Frasconi, renowned for his politically charged woodcuts. In collaboration with poets, she made Limited Edition artist books. Among the poets and musicians, she has worked with are Joseph Brodsky, Dennis Brutus, Galway Kinnell, Octavio Paz, John Cage and Robert Kelly. Schreiber-Noll’s work captures the raw duality of human existence, portraying the deep struggles of society and the devastating impacts of war alongside the profound beauty of our world. Through contrasting elements, she speaks of conflict, division, and societal issues, revealing the scars that mark both people and places. Yet, amid the darkness, her work also celebrates the resilience of life and the breathtaking splendor of our planet, reminding us of the harmony and beauty that persist. This juxtaposition invites reflection on our choices, urging a vision for peace and a more compassionate relationship with each other and our Earth. The brilliant insights of Donald Kuspit resonate profoundly as he skillfully unravels the quintessence of certain elements depicted within her artistic oeuvre. In his eloquent words, Kuspit proclaims, shadowy presences, abstract remnants of a ruined nature. "A Sturm and Drang expressionist, as the painting The Storm makes clear, Schreiber-Noll seems to show nature in its death throes, agonized beyond recovery. She says that her trees are “symbols of hope, new beginnings, regeneration and the promise of protecting our forests for the next generations,” but her forest is very black, her trees are charred fragments of nature. There is no sanctuary in them, only suffering. “Save the Dream/Save the Planet,” the elaborate text that accompanies her trees declares, but it is only a dream, never to become a reality, as the nightmarish trees suggest. I see angry futility in Schreiber-Noll’s works, which seems an appropriate response to the neglect of nature, even indifference to its plight, and unawareness of the fact that its death is ours." |