Welcome Speech at the opening of an Exhibition of paintings by Frederik Beerbaum -“The Observer Observed” 

Dra Ana Carvalho, members of the Aljezur International Choir, ladies and gentlemen. 

It is a great honour for me to speak on behalf of Frederik Beerbaum, at the opening of the 3rd exhibition of his paintings in Portugal entitled “The Observer Observed”. I have known Frederick for two years and am a great admirer of his work, which I find fascinating and deeply interesting. The painting I have of his gives me infinite pleasure every day. 

Firstly I would like to welcome you all and to give thanks to Dra Ana Carvalho for her kind words. A big thank you is also due to Sra Sandra Almeida and her staff, for their help in staging this exhibition at the Forteleza in Sagres. I would also like to thank Doris and the Aljezur International Choir for taking part today and President Marreiros for providing the transport for them. 

In the past, over a period of six years Frederik spent many hours painting and drawing portraits of women who had a disassociated identity disorder, which meant that they experienced themselves as being several different personalities. These personalities represented many human states and emotions. They manifested themselves in different ages and sexes and showed in turn, for example, happiness, sadness, hurt, shame and anger. Many of these aspects can be seen in the portraits Frederik made of them. These women tried to lead as normal a life as possible under the circumstances, learning to integrate their personalities with their daily lives. They were as curious as Frederik was at the results of the drawing sessions, often recognising their different alta egos. One remarked “Looking at the drawings I’ve discovered what we look like.” 

The process of drawing them was quite different from the usual painter and his model. He had to follow them in their, sometimes, rapidly changing expressions. They led and he followed them in their transformations. Hence the title of the exhibition “The Observer Observed ”. 

The observation drawings and paintings of three different women, one of them, Karin, a puppeteer, can be seen here at the Fortaleza in the first four rooms. 

The theme – metamorphosis – or transformation has been a motive for all the work of Frederik Beerbaum during his 35 years as a painter. In the following two rooms are paintings he has made during the last year which were inspired by the earlier portraits. He says “Many of the feelings I could not express while working with the sitters themselves, have found their way into these paintings.” 

Also in the last two rooms are drawings that he made in 2002 and 2003 while waiting for his Portuguese studio to be built. Their title “Eros and Thanatos” shows the two extremes between which we humans live. Almost every day he sat at the kitchen table improvising using small paper and pen and ink. Looking back at the ingredients of the 736 drawings, he considers them to be a résumé of his personal journey and a closure on a very interesting period in his career. 

In conclusion, thank you all for coming. Please take your time and enjoy the experience of looking at the exciting work of this remarkable artist – Frederik Beerbaum. 

Faith Irene Clements 27-11-2004