Inge Boesken Kanold

Inge Boesken Kanold
painter
Version française
Château
84480 Lacoste
tél 04 90 75 83 99
[email protected]
Web Site
www.artemision.free.fr/boesken
Chemin du
1939 Born in Haseluenne, Germany.
1959-65 Studies linguistics and literature in Muenster and Munich, Germany, and
Montpellier, France.
1960 Begins to paint in Montpellier in the studio of Philippe Pradalié.
1965-79 Travels to the Far East, studies portrait painting with an Australian artist and oil
painting in a Chinese art college in Kuala Lumpur. Works with a sculptor of masks in Bali to
learn old colour techniques.
1975 Begins research on the origins and techniques of ancient colours. First art work
using Indigo.
1977 Directs a workshop for East Javanese painters on the preparation of canvas
techniques at the German Cultural Centre in Surabaya, Indonesia.
1978 Publishes a manual in Indonesian ("Kanvas Moderen") on the preparation of canvas
for use in tropical climates with local materials. Leaves Indonesia for Beyrouth, Lebanon.
First experiments with Royal Purple at the American University of Beyrouth.
1979 Moves to West Berlin. Meets Henri Gowa, a painter and pigment specialist.
1980 Member of the Artists’ Association BBK, Berlin
1982 Moves to Lacoste, Provence, France.
1987 Continues research on ancient colour techniques.Works with Royal Purple and
Indigo.
1993 First art work using Tekhelet, the Biblical Blue.
1994 Member of the Artists’ Association ARTIFICES, Apt, Provence, France.
1997 Founding member of Artists’ Publications PLAK’ART, Apt, Provence.
1999 Member of the Board, OKHRA, Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments Appliqués,
Roussillon, France
Recommended by Nobel Prize Winner Roald Hoffmann (Cornell University, U.S.A.) for "The
L'Oréal Art & Science of Colour Prize" for her work on Tekhelet (Biblical Blue)
2001 Rediscovery of the purple-dyed parchment.
1970 7th Malaysian Art Exhibition. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1971 Galaxy Art Gallery. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1974 American Cultural Center. Surabaya, Indonesia.
1975 Affandi Museum. Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
1976 Samat Art Gallery. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1979 German Cultural Center. Beyrouth, Lebanon.
1980-93 Exhibitions in Germany, France and Sweden.
1993 The Marquis de Sade and the Stones of Lacoste. International Art Exhibition,
Lacoste, Provence.
Indigo and Purple, the rediscovery of two ancient colours. ARTIFICES, Artists’
Association, Apt.
1995 2nd International Congress on Woad, Indigo and other tinctorial plants.
Toulouse, France.
1996 Indigo from Dyeing to Painting. ARTIFICES, Artists’ Association, Apt, Provence
1998 Purple: the Color from the Sea. Apt, Provence.
Indigo, Painting. Kunstwestthueringer Artists’ Association, Muehlhausen, Germany.
1999 Apt-en-Couleur. Lecture on Biblical Blue at a seminar on colour; Indigo – Textiles
for the Blue Planet. Apt, Provence
Indigo and Purple. ÖXPO ’99, exhibition during a seminar on environment, Grabow,
Germany.
Indigo: a Forgotten Colour. Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Germany
Festin de Couleurs. Exhibition on dye-plants in Apt, Parc du Luberon and Château de la
Tour d’Aigues, France.
2000 Farbe als Formprinzip. Esslingen, Germany.
La Pourpre, Aquarelles d’Eau de Mer. OKHRA Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments
Appliqués, Roussillon, France
Romantik 2000. Jesteburger Kunstwoche, Jesteburg, Germany
2001 Peaux de Peinture™ Purple-dyed parchment. OKHRA Roussillon, France
Les Marchands de Lumières Le Murex. Maison de l’Innovation, Clermont-Ferrand,
France.
Maleri, Galleri Thornell, Lidköping, Suède
Dyeing or Painting Parchment with Murex trunculus, 20th Annual Meeting of Dyes in
History and Archeology, Amsterdam, Pays Bas
2002
La Cuve de Pourpre par Fermentation, " Ecole de Printemps ", Conservatoire des ocres
et pigments appliqués, Roussillon, France
Les Artistes du Village, Lacoste, France
Earth Tones I
Natural Dyes in Art, Iowa State University, Ames, U.S.A.
Das rote Tuch - archaeologischen Textilien auf der Spur.
Kuenstlerische Werkstatt: Farben der Antike, Purpur.
Archaeologisches Museum, Frankfurt a.M."
Medieval Dyestuffs and Dyeing - Reading University U.K: A Purple Fermentation Vat
21st Annual Meeting on Dyes in History and Archaeology, 10-12th October 2002,
Avignon and Lauris, France: A Blue Purple Fermentation Vat
Publications
"De la matière à la couleur" Barbara et Mathieu Barrois, Edisud 2001, p.135
"Actes de Colloque de l ' Ecole de Printemps 2002" , Conservatoire des ocres et
pigments appliqués, Mars 2002
"Kanvas Moderen", Inge Zimmermann, PT Intermasa, Jakarta 1978
"Indigo et Le Bleu de la Bible. La couleur, ce végétal" proceedings of Apt-en-Couleur
1999 pp.28-31
"De la matière à la couleur", Barbara and Mathieu Barrois, Edisud 2001, p.135
"La Cuve de Pourpre par Fermentation", in proceedings of 'Ecole de Printemps 2002.
La Coulleur des Matériaux' Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments Appliqués, Mars 2002
Purple, the Color from the Sea
(text by Inge Boesken Kanold)
Inge BOESKEN KANOLD
is an artist with a special interest in ancient and forgotten colours. She began research on
colours during her 14-year stay in Asia during the seventies.
In 1975, for the first time since independence, indigo was harvested in Indonesia, and she
was able to obtain a few grams of this rare blue pigment. Travelling in India, she found
yellow orpiment and on Bali cinnabar, black from soot and white made from calcinated pig
bones.
In 1979, while living in Beirut, Lebanon she tried, helped by scientists, to produce the
pigment of ancient purple, using the secretion of a mollusc called Murex trunculus.
Since 1982 she has lived and worked in Lacoste, Provence. The local markets provide her
with the sea-snails she needs for her work with purple, which, in 1993, enabled her to
rediscover the blue purple or Tekhelet, the sacred colour of the Bible (lost in the 7th
century A.D.), a colour as blue as the sea from where it originates.
In January 2001, together with John Edmonds and other ancient purple specialists, she
succeeded in reconstructing a fermentation vat using fresh Murex trunculus. This was
done at the ‘Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments Appliqués’ in Roussillon, Provence.
This has led her to continue research on a related subject: the purple parchment.
Parchment had replaced papyrus in the 4th century A.D. as the main support material for
manuscript writing and illumination. It was used for documents for royalty and scribes in
monasteries copied the Bible on to it. Parchment was prepared with great care and often
the most precious colours were used to dye or decorate them. Purple coloured parchment
and writing executed in silver or gold can be seen on the most prestigious documents.
Was the purple of these manuscripts of animal origin? Were they dyed or painted with
purple and how was this done? Because the technique of using real purple has not been
employed since the Middle Ages, the skill of producing purple parchment has been lost.
According to modern science, the so-called purple manuscripts from the early periods were
often falsified with other, cheaper red and violet dye-stuffs.
After weeks of trial and error, Inge Boesken Kanold was finally able to paint and dye
parchment using real purple. Fortunately, a few parchment makers still exist in Europe, so
that she was able to obtain the basic material in order to work with the purple secretion of
the Murex trunculus, which is still available in the Mediterranean.
Knowing that she depends on fresh sea-snails, she tried to find a way of storing the
hypobranchial glands by cutting them out and preserving them in rough salt. This allows
her to use them in a vat any time she wants. In August 2001, she succeeded for the first
time a fermentation vat using dried murex glands.
This is of great importance for historians because it explains how and why purple factories
existed for example in Upper Egypt, far away from the coast.
©2001 by Inge Boesken Kanold