Sophie Wratzfeld in Conversation with Artist, Bárbara Moura
Bárbara Moura.
Born in Lisbon, previously studying in London and now living in Vienna, Bárbara Moura combines various artistic influences in her works, ranging from the flat painting style and symbolically charged imagery of Frida Kahlo, to the distorted faces and bodies of Egon Schiele and the mysterious gracefulness of Gustav Klimt.
In her introspective paintings, the feeling of melancholy that often arises is contrasted with bold colors, expressive brushstrokes and strong contours that envelop the women like armour, making them appear strong and fierce. Within her paintings and drawings, she addresses questions of femininity, sexuality, and vulnerability as well as socio-political issues such as women’s rights and mental health.
MADE IN BED’s Contributor Sophie Wratzfeld talks to Bárbara Moura about artistic self-staging, capturing people’s essence and telling their story through painting and the struggles of being an artist.
Portuguese Lady, 70 x 50 cm, oil on wood board, 2020.
Sophie Wratzfeld: You did an MA in Applied Imagination in The Creative Industries at Central Saint Martins, London but now live in Vienna - how do you feel about the Viennese art scene compared to London?
Bárbara Moura: You would be amazed to know that even though I did graduate at Central Saint Martins, I had no idea about the London art scene, apart from the big galleries and museums, Frieze and East London’s Thursday opening nights. Throughout all my years in London, I spent my time mostly with musicians or close friends who were studying fashion.
Outside my MA degree work I did all sorts of jobs and spent my time going to gigs and being the one in the room who doesn’t play any instrument or know anything about fashion. I was not yet so inclined to make an art career, or better yet, I never really thought I could make it in any way - that was a toxic trait of London for me. I just felt so blessed to live in a place where music and creative grandeur pours from the walls and where everything is so f*cking expensive that you got to live off dreams.
In that sense Vienna was a true salvation, I could start fresh. Vienna’s much more “contained” environment has brought me hope and for the first time I felt that there could be a space for me, compared with the “too much, too many” constant feeling I had in London.
SW: The self-staging of the artist has a long tradition in art history, in your works self-portraits also occupy a dominant position – what interests you about the exploration of the self?
BM: I like to be able to represent myself in each and every different way I want through self-portraits, and it really is a sort of therapy for me. I also find it much easier than portraying other people; it's a huge responsibility to paint others and when I represent myself, I find a safe space and one of freedom too. I can create different personas and I don’t have to deal with anyone coming and saying: “Hey Barbara, what the hell have you made me look like?”.
Self-Portrait, 90 x 60 cm, oil on canvas, 2021.
SW: Fashion plays a big role in your self-portraits. Often you are dressed in costume-like garments with eye-catching patterns, holding flowers in your hand that seem to act as extravagant accessories. What meaning does fashion have to you?
BM: My mother used to be a fashion designer and I was always amazed with her garments and with the drawings from her collections while I was growing up. It also happens that for some reason I mostly wear black even though I have a wild fascination for colourful, extravagant outfits. So, through painting and drawing I can come out of my shell and picture myself wearing these kinds of outfits that I would be too self-conscious wearing outside - and mostly don't even exist. I think flowers have all different symbolic meanings to me, but in my drawings, they are just an object of vulnerability, beauty, and femininity.
Bad Girls Do it Well.
70 x 50cm, oil pastels on paper, 2021.
If Not Me, Then Who?.
70 x 50 cm, oil pastels and crayons on coloured paper, 2021.
SW: In your series Remarkable Women you paint women whose stories or achievements you find inspiring and ground-breaking - what makes a woman remarkable to you?
BM: If I leave any moral judgement of character apart, the qualities that truly define a remarkable woman for me are courage, resilience, strength, and a conviction so strong you are able to keep going no matter your background, hardships you have to endure, trauma, oppression systems and rejection.
Alma Mahler, 29.7 x 21 cm, oil on paper, 2018.
SW: In addition to dealing with questions about personal and collective female identity, you also reflect on current world issues in your paintings. In your recent series Kunst des Wegschauens [the art of looking away] you address theTaliban's takeover of Afghanistan, its impact on women's rights and the government's inability to act. Do you find it more difficult to express global political themes than personal ones?
BM: Yes, I find it much harder because most of these issues are usually very complicated and far away from my place of privilege. The personal ones are easier because I feel like I own them and understand them.
Die Kunst des Wegschauens.
145cm x 100cm, oil on canvas, 2021.
SW: In a recent interview, you said, "The only role artists have is to be free, being an artist is hard enough." What do you consider the biggest struggle of being an artist?
BM: I think making a living as an artist is really not easy to start with. You basically sign up for a life of financial instability where you can hardly take anything for granted. You don't always know what you are doing and where it will lead you and that has a lot of impact on one's mental health too. Somehow, people have a lot of expectations and opinions about what the role of an artist is. There’s still this huge stigma about it as a job. You wouldn’t for example ask, “What do you think is the role of a baker? Or a doctor?”. There’s [also] the struggle with oneself, the fear of failure, the hard self-criticism, and so on.
Seasonal Mess, crayons on coloured paper, 2021.
SW: Throughout your career, what has helped you the most to gain recognition so far?
BM: There’s this very funny story about when Jerry Saltz shared one of my paintings on Instagram - that was mental. I remember waking up and seeing hundreds of notifications and getting really confused. I used to have this really old iPhone, and it completely crashed when I tried to actually open the app and realise what madness was going on.
I hate to say it, but Instagram really helped. It is a great tool for artists who, like me, are not represented by any gallery. In the real world, the support from Stefan Bidner, the director and curator of Parallel had a very important role in presenting me to the Viennese art scene. It helped me get attention from people I truly appreciate nowadays.
Thank you, Bárbara.
Image courtesy of Bárbara Moura.
Visit Bárbara Moura’s Instagram b_moura to find out more about her work.
Sophie Wratzfeld,
Contributor, MADE IN BED