Marliese Scheller

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What is the meaning of a work of art, and what are its artistic and aesthetic value?

The uniqueness of a work of art lies in the fact that it is a creation of the mind and heart, and therefore an original work.

Aesthetics is perceived as the “science” of beauty.

At the heart of every work is the artist’s inspiration and creative process, but these are not enough to define its value or endear it to the art-lover. Mastery of technique, colour harmony and composition, the balance between solids and voids, are unique to each artist. In a way, they are his/her signature, enabling him/her to express an idea, an emotion, through light, shadow and colour.

If I have piqued your curiosity, I invite you to discover for yourself.

Oil Painting

(1952-2014)

For my oil paintings, I chose not to use acrylics, as I felt they would not provide the nuances I was seeking. For each of my paintings, I prepared its gesso background, applied the colours with a palette knife and developed a beeswax solution that I used as varnish. During my studies, Henri Gowa had taught me the colour technique used by medieval painters. I kept a diary in which I recorded the colour combinations and tints I developed under his guidance and explored Cezanne’s use of yellow.

Mindful that current studies in painting are sometimes the result of aesthetic research, I followed my intuition and focused on a genre that expresses an inner thought. My characters take center stage in the composition, and I imagined man as an extension of nature - a nature imbued with lyricism and poetry, which I tried to convey through the facial expressions and gestures.


(click on thumbnails below to enlarge)

Danse avec le soleil, 76 cm x 114 cm, 1996 Contrastes, 42 cm x 53 cm, 1995 Tibétain, 73 cm x 92 cm, 1995 Le philosophe, 65 cm x 80 cm, 1994 Un coin de paradis, 40 cm x 60 cm, 2014 Couple à la fleur, 64 cm x 82 cm, 1956

Black and White Period

(1988-1995)

My “black and white period” is a set of ink drawings in which everything is rendered in black and white, an aesthetic that recalls graphic art. It is a delicate mental balancing act in which white - the paper - and black - the ink - alternate and interact to modulate the design, bring out textures and depth, create the illusion of nuances and delineate light and dark areas.

Early in my career, I learned to execute woodblock prints with the Belgian painter and engraver, Frans Masereel, who taught me how to contrast black and white surfaces to render luminosity.

As with graphic output, I visualized at the outset which spaces are to be painted and which are to be left blank, and because the paper surface represents the colour white, mistakes cannot be corrected after the fact.


(click on thumbnails below to enlarge)

Le baigneur, 43 cm x 60 cm, 1988 Les tournesols, 50 cm x 70 cm, 1988 Sans-titre, 56 cm x 77 cm, 1994 Le silence, 60 cm x 95 cm, 1988 L'attente, 50 cm x 70 cm, 1988 Paysage des bois, 92 cm x 100 cm, 1988

Small-scale Painting

(1967-1992)

In the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, where every expression is rendered with great sobriety, I perceived the spirit of the age of the cathedrals, a period rich in achievements.

For two of my four cycles of small-scale paintings (Twelve Months of the Year and The Four Seasons), I was inspired by the calendar pages of medieval Book of Hours. As in the art of book illumination I applied the colour in layers onto a vellum support and my folios are full-page figurative scenes but without text. I also created single folios.


(click on thumbnails below to enlarge)

Les quatre saisons - L'automne, 24 cm x 26 cm, 1981 Les quatre saisons - L'hiver, 24 cm x 26 cm, 1981 Le cycle de la créations - Au commencement, 20 cm x 20 cm, 1985 Le cycle de la créations - Création de la terre, 24 cm x 31 cm, 1985 Signes du Zodiaque ou les douze mois - Septembre, 22 cm x 26 cm, 1967 Signes du Zodiaque ou les douze mois - Octobre, 22 cm x 26 cm, 1967

Tapestry

(1956-1977)

Inspired by the work undertaken by Jean Lurçat and his contemporaries in the 1940s at Aubusson (France), I was keen to join in. Living in the Middle East at the time, I was instrumental in the revival of tapestry by setting up a weaving workshop at Zouk Mikael (Lebanon) in 1956, where I trained weavers and introduced wool. I studied the tradition and its technical constraints to gain a better understanding of the distinctive character and specificities of medieval tapestries. This undertaking that I held dear resulted in years of painstaking effort to restore tapestry to its former glory.

Each of my tapestries is woven on horizontal looms based on my numbered or full-size painted cartoons and are unique pieces, i.e., woven only once based on my numbered or painted cartoons. While the weaving stitch is similar to that of Aubusson, the technique I introduced has resulted in a weaving without readjustment or concealment.


(click on thumbnails below to enlarge)

Femme à l'oiseau, 133 cm x 149 cm, 1965 L'étang, 117 cm x 154 cm, 1965 Le paon, 138 cm x 145 cm, 1967 L'oiseau bleu, 137 cm x 178 cm, 1965 La corbeille de fleurs, 90 cm x 160 cm, 1965 Mille-Fleurs, 117 cm x 154 cm, 1966 L'arbre, 90 cm x 160 cm, 1960 Le printemps, 137 cm x 178 cm, 1971 L'oiseau, 133 cm x 149 cm, 1971 Voyage, 125 cm x 250 cm, 1965 L'oiseleur - Carton de tapisserie numéroté (détail), 117 cm x 154 cm, 1970

Achievements

Solo Exhibitions

1966
Tapestries, Hotel Phoenicia, Beyrouth, Liban

1961
Tapestries, UNESCO, Beyrouth, Liban

1956
Painting, drawing, woodcut prints, Centre d’études supérieures, Beyrouth, Liban

 

Group Exhibitions

2023
Digitally represented by Agora Gallery, New York, USA

2022 (June 3rd - June 24th)
Summer Solstice : Ink Drawings, Agora Gallery, New York, USA

2021 (May 4th - May 25th)
Introspection Outside the Picture : Ink Drawings, Agora Gallery, New York, USA

2019 (August 24th - September 24th)
A Splendid Summer Show Case : Oil Paintings and Ink Drawings, Agora Gallery New York, USA

2018 (July 7th - July 27th)
The Figure and Unknown Places : Oil Paintings, Agora Gallery, New York, USA

2000 (January 22nd - February 7th
Miniatures by Marliese Scheller: small-scale paintings on parchment, Stewart Hall Gallery, Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada (duo exhibition with Frédéric Back)

1990 (December)
Le Décor de la table: tapestries, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

1989 (September 2nd - September 27th
Visual Metaphors: oil paintings, Ariel Gallery, Soho, New York, USA

1989 (September)
Small-scale paintings, Toronto Metro Convention and Del Bello Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1968
L’oiseau bleu, tapestry, Gallery Franck-Nell, Montreal, Canada

1965-1967
Tapestries, Evreux, Douvres-la-Délivrande and Bordeaux (France), exhibitions curated by Le Hallier

1952 (January)
Painting, The Saarland Museum, Allemagne

1950
Published three woodcuts in Blühende Gärten, West Ost Verlag, Saarland

1949 (April 29th - May 8th)
Drawings, paintings and woodcuts, Centre des arts décoratifs du Louvre, Paris, France

 

Works in Public Places

1965
Voyage, tapestry, commissioned for Beirut’s International Airport VIP lounge

1948
Frescoes in the choir transept at St. Ursula, Scheidt, Saareland

 

Publications

July 2024
Published ink drawing in Masterful Minds #2

December 2022
December 2022: Artistic Excellence Award by Circle Foundation for the Arts for artwork displaying originality, uniqueness and outstanding aesthetics in all visual art categories for publication in Circle Quarterly Art Review, Winter 2022 issue.

September 2022
Published in Spotlight

May 2022
Published in Spotlight

March-July 2022
Published in Contemporary Art Curator

February-March 2022
Published in Art IDEAL

November-Décember 2021
Published in Spotlight

July-August 2021
Published in Spotlight

March-April 2021
Published in Spotlight

Décember 2020
Published in Art IDEAL