Continental Drift

Deborah White is the reason, why we have gathered tonight: quite an international mix of people, curious to see her first gallery exhibition in Europe, to be precise and honest: to see her first real gallery show - outside her homeland. It’s exciting, I guess, for her as well as for me, since it’s the first time in my life, that I have the honour to open such a show und to introduce the artist to folks, who might know about art much more than I do. However, during my last years living and working in New York as a correspondent for German TV I couldn’t avoid to report about several remarkable exhibitions and artists: in SoHo, Williamsburg, Long Island City or the Bronx, - at PS1 or MoMa, Whitney, Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum or outdoors: The Gates in Central Park. So that’s maybe, why the gallery owners, Gisa and Winfried Radinger, thought, that I might find the right words, and I’ll try. First of all, what I’ve learned in New York, is: keep it brief.

Today most of the show openings in America don’t have introductions anymore. The art collectors just walk by. Since art speaks for itself, and each individual looking at a painting discovers anyway something unique and specific. It depends on your own background, expectation, point of view and often mood. The individual moment of viewing is nothing else than the individual moment of painting. Debbie travelled to Spain, had a strong experience, when she saw, by chance, paintings of Antoni Tapies - one of the most remarkable contemporary artists in Europe - a guy, who never studied art, - may I say: just the opposite: law -, but got himself inspired in the beginning by Picasso, later the great artists of sur-realism, like Mirós, Ernst and Klee. Same happened to Debbie, who until then loved drawing and painting, which she did already as a kid, but just for fun, like quite a few of us. But her source of income, so far, was satisfying her clients in the very commercial business of advertisement. Her client for the last seven years was an American patriot. In particular after Nine Eleven the whole layout had always to be red-white-blue and as cheap as possible. Debbie got bored. Tapies in Barcelona war Debbie’s Inspiration. However, the job as an advertising art director for 20 years made her travel a lot. And: The Rolling Stones. Her love for their music and her desire to hear them as often as possible live on stage. A quarter of a century ago they were in Chicago with Muddy Waters, where Debbie lived, and since the mid-90s Debbie joined an internet group of fans and tried to follow the Stones as often as possible to their concerts. Debbie had started to travel to Europe. First to Italy, later to Spain, where she happened to see an exhibition of Antoni Tapies. She had admired him already before, but in Barcelona her jaw dropped and she stared at one of his paintings for hours. He became her inspiration. For her he is a total genius. When she paints, she has his style in mind, but, of course, in the end it turns out totally different. Like Tapies she totally taught herself the techniques of painting. Acrylic was her choice of material. She had already some background, since she went to an art school a while ago, however to study graphic design, layouts for commercial adverts. But that’s obviously the reason, why the abstract expressionist style came easily to her, and why she loves paintings with "words in them". Often these are words or phrases from lyrics of the "Rolling Stones".

As an example: you will find a painting named "Salt of the Earth". Debbie told me, it’s about all the people, she has met via her Rolling Stones internet group over the last ten years. This painting is about them, and how close friends they have become. "Salt of the Earth" people are everywhere. You have to find them. Named after a Rolling Stones song. The lyrics go "Let’s drink to the hardworking people…let’s drink to the salt of the earth."
A second painting I want to mention is named "Continental Drift". It’s also the headline tonight: the title of Debbie’s exhibition. There is a fragment of a newspaper at the bottom that says in Spanish "reflections on the voice". This is about meeting people from "far away places", about remembering the accents of your friends from different countries. Tonight we don’t need to remember them, we can hear them. Deborah White bridged the "Continental Drift". Having mentioned these two examples, you might now better understand the statement of the artist herself: Her paintings are about connections. Connecting in a unique and personal way with a place or an event. She tries to convey the essence of a place through colour, form and texture. Incorporating pieces of newspapers or other printed materials collected during her travels adds concreteness and a touchable authenticity to the work. She enjoys intertwining texture and many layers within a painting. It is only when these layers feel completely interwoven and connected, that the painting is complete. Deborah White was born in small town America, Ann Arbour, Michigan, a town about the same size as Castrop-Rauxel. After her successful career as an advertising art director she now crossed the "Rubicon" - as she sees it herself. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon 49 before Christ, he knew there is no way back. That’s what the Rolling Stones sang a bit later:" I think I have crossed the Rubicon" in their "Streets of Love". And that’s, what Debbie felt, when she started to paint. Debbie is convinced, that everyone has or will have their personal "Rubicons". Now we will see some of the results of her "Rubicon" hanging on the wall. Tapies was her starting point, let’s say: her airport. The Rolling Stones made her take off and fly – among others - to places like Washington DC, Amsterdam, New York, London, Stockholm - and in Stockholm she met Johannes Delmere. Of course, both went there for a Rolling Stones concert. And he introduced her to Gisa and Winfried Radinger, and that’s, why she landed now in Castrop-Rauxel. One of her paintings she named "Hand of Fate" - the Stockholm one. The hand of fate brought her from there to Castrop-Rauxel. And now a few words directed to all the guests, who came just for this moment from almost all over the world, from England, Denmark, Puerto Rico and the United States, who have followed Debbie to this place and probably still try to pronounce it properly. Yes, Castrop-Rauxel is just a small place in between big German cities like Dussseldorf, Cologne or Dortmund, but it lies in the heart of huge metropolitan urban area. Like Hoboken, New Jersey, a tiny town between New York and Newark, but Frank Sinatra was born there. When I recently came back from New York, where I lived for more than six years, it happened to me that I moved to Castrop-Rauxel. And I love it. Most of all, because of the people: their creativity, curiosity, openness and kindness -I hope, you will find out yourself. And the German art friends will now find out, how Debbie White crossed the Atlantic and her personal Rubicon. And I firmly believe, it’s not wrong to say, the Rolling Stones played their part to bring us all together. So, enjoy:"Let it steal your heart away".

Gerald Baars
Castrop-Rauxel, 8. März 2007