Barbara Ellmerer Sense of Science : Paintings

A dialogue between natural science and art: the first major monograph on Swiss painter Barbara Ellmerer.

When an apple falls to the ground, we see the effect of gravity. Yet not all laws of nature are as apparent. Swiss artist Barbara Ellmerer uses these invisible principles of physics, biology, and cosmology as her starting point and translates them into paintings. She sends us into the realm of colors and shapes in which forces, movements, and processes from nature are synonymously realized and palpable. Ellmerer thereby also captures something inexplicable, which reminds us of how steeped in wonder the world still is.

Barbara Ellmerer. Sense of Science features a selection of oil paintings and works on paper created by the artist between 2010 and 2020. Ellmerer’s sometimes large-format pictures are shown both in full as well as in enlarged details to show the intricacies of her brushstroke, color qualities, surfaces, depths, movements, and emphases. This combination also makes productive use of the migration of media—from painting to photography—and its reproduction in the book. In an accompanying essay, Laura Corman, a quantum physicist, explains how Ellmerer’s art relates to natural science. A contribution by Nadine Olonetzky, writer and photo expert, describes art’s capabilities of rendering invisible processes comprehensible.

Barbara Ellmerer studied at the F+F School of Art and Design in Zurich and at Berlin’s University of the Arts. After extended stays in Spain, Italy, New York, and Delhi, she now lives and works in Zurich.

Laura Corman is a French physicist who has been working in fundamental research at ENS Paris and ETH Zurich. She now works as an engineer at X-Rite Europe in Switzerland and contributes to popularizing science.

Nadine Olonetzky is a Zurich-based writer and photo expert, and an editor with Scheidegger & Spiess publishers.