BETTINA PASCHKE “Drawing Lines”

Autumn exhibition on the upper floor

BETTINA PASCHKE

"Linien ziehen" /

"Drawing Lines"

Opening: Fri, 02.10.2026, 7:30 pm

Introduction: Dr.in TANJA GURKE, art historian, freelance curator and cultural manager

Exhibition: 04.10.2026 - 10.01.2027

Between the Lines Nr.194, 40x60, 2023

BETTINA PASCHKE

"Linien ziehen“

The exhibition “Linien ziehen” presents a selection of drawings by the Graz-based artist BETTINA PASCHKE on the upper floor of the Museum der Wahrnehmung, created in recent years. For her drawings on paper, the artist mainly uses felt-tip pens in varying widths.

Every drawing by the artist begins with a straight line, whose ends form the starting points for the next lines. All drawings – consisting of a multitude of individual strokes in a single colour – share a stroke system developed by her, within which larger or smaller deviations arise due to differences in stroke length or direction. In the freehand, repetitive arrangement of identical shapes such as triangles, rhombuses or hexagons, fine irregularities emerge which, in the slow growth process of the drawing, lead to deformations of the entire line structure. Compressed or stretched, these net-like structures come into view. Within the linear formation, densities repeatedly form through smaller shapes or through the overlaying of line structures. BETTINA PASCHKE pushes this play with density so far in places that the linear system is no longer discernible to the naked eye. “My interest lies in the unstable, the fleeting – the shimmer that makes one uncertain.”

It is a slow working process that demands high concentration and whose final result nevertheless cannot be planned in advance. She strives, says BETTINA PASCHKE, for perfection, yet is always aware that this is impossible, which is why she tries to deal with mistakes. She plays with this circumstance in a certain way by sometimes deliberately provoking errors – by inserting a different shape – in order then to explore their effects in the course of the emerging drawing. Every decision, sometimes made spontaneously, to change a line or the system itself has consequences for the following lines and ultimately for the entire composition. The deviations heighten tension for the viewer and make the line formation appear alive. Recognising minimal irregularities while continually comparing lines and shapes in the drawings of BETTINA PASCHKE becomes an exciting challenge, kindled anew again and again. “I rely on the persistence of the quiet. Whoever whispers forces their counterpart to come close, to listen carefully, and to take their time.”

Dr.in TANJA GURKE, art historian, curator: “Drawing lines is for BETTINA PASCHKE like a handwriting. Every first stroke is the beginning of something uncertain. How the finished sheet will ultimately look only emerges in constant doing, in the rhythm of setting the small, precise lines. Patterns and ordered structures begin to vibrate and shimmer, an energy builds up within the fabric-like surfaces and makes the textile-looking nets appear elastic and pliant. Narrow to wide-meshed line weavings take shape through systematic, persistent repetition across the pictorial space and tighten across the surface. The artist leads us viewers into a seemingly infinite span of time, into a contemplative place of our perception, both outside and within us.”

BETTINA PASCHKE: “My artistic medium is drawing, characterised by my delight in minimising, simplifying and dismantling, and by the laborious search for intensity. A straight line stands at the beginning; its start and its end form a point. Fine single strokes lie horizontally,…”