I first met Barbara Sobol in a class I taught in 2024. The class was part of a series titled The Human Condition. This specific class dissected the work of Francis Bacon, through the writings of Giles Deleuze. The class was challenging: it demanded much from the students, offered no specific instructions, and required them to tap into a part of themselves that they would prefer to avoid. Mark-making was channeled through what Deleuze described as "hysteria". Form was excavated from layered surfaces of scratching into the dark...

While some struggled, Barbara was in familiar territory. She settled in and confronted what had haunted her and her family members, who knew struggle over several decades. To do this kind of work, one must reckon with the past and with one self. Barbara, having been a therapist for many years, turned the lens onto herself and started working on the drawings you see in this gallery. She continued this work through many classes she took at the studio school with Jill Bateman and Courtney Applequist.

You will notice that some of the figures have their eyes closed. Are they closing themselves off and away from reality? Are they attempting to escape or disappear? Some seem peaceful while others seem resigned to their fate. What is their fate? Having lost family members during the Holocaust, and later, in other circumstances in her life, Barbara inevitably conjures their likeness in these drawings. One by one, images of loved ones appear. Some images materialize accidentally, while others are drawn with the care she wishes she could still impart to them. Wiping a bit of paint or charcoal becomes a tender act, like caring for an injured person.

Barbara's entire thesis is about the human condition. She has lived  through several phases of life, and the joy and horror it can bring. She is familiar with the dark. Drawing the dark is what she was meant to do her whole life.

 

I hope you step into the friendly dark with us and allow yourself to sit with the work. You might leave with more questions than answers, but this is what good art does - it often leaves you at sea, and you have to slowly surface to shore.

A heartfelt congratulations to Barbara Sobol on this beautifully obsessive body of work. We can't wait to see how you continue to unfold.

-Reem Bassous

Executive Artistic Director

Washington Studio School