BARBARA LOOMIS


"Do Not Touch The Art" (2000)

presented by the publishing house Artikel Editionen Fabian, established in 1995 by the journalist Peter Fabian.

The Artikel Editionen Fabian are specialised in art works with a message. In April 2008 the publishing house presents the Spring-Programm 2008 with a selection of artists from the 60ies up to our days. You can find in this selection Timm Ulrichs' prohibition sign "Betreten der Ausstellung verboten!" (which means as much as "It is forbidden to enter the exhibition") from 1968; a document for the revolutionary ideas to bring art to the streets and out of the monuments of "high culture" defined by the bourgeois society of the late 60ies.

How can a blind person percept art?

Barbara Loomis t-shirts's message "Do Not Touch The Art" is written in braille alphabet. But touching art in the museum is forbidden. The paradox situation is that you understand the message only by touching it. As long as you do not touch it is not forbidden to touch art! Barbara Loomis has created the shirts especially for Museum-shops; the minimum quantity is a package of 12 t-shirts.

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Barbara Loomis, born in 1958 in Wurzburg, (Germany), had an unanticipated graduation from high school in California in 1975. She spent the next three years exploring three different majors in as many colleges and states, graduating in 1978 from Virginia Commonwealth University with a B.F.A. in Art History. After her following Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship period, she was working in Munich as a graphic designer/illustrator for another year before returning stateside. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, she was freelancing as an illustrator, teaching art on a contract basis through various institutions in town, serving as a commercial photographer¹s assistant, tending bar and spending a fair amount of time on a stand as a life-model. 1983 she became the administrator of the Fayetteville Museum of Art. In 1984, she moved back to Virginia, working as an illustrator for the U.S. Army, hired to put camouflage on uniforms of soldiers in technical and field manuals. She painted portraits of generals and wall murals, designed a color and signage guide now implemented worldwide on military installations and was also responsible for the design of the first regimental insignia and accoutrement adopted by the U.S. Army under the new regimental system. Finally she edited, designed, and laid-out the first edition of the Quartermaster Professional Bulletin. 1989 she moved with her husband to Monterey, California, where she became the Curator of Exhibits of the 7th Infantry Division and Ft. Ord Museum until 1992. She have been freelancing ever since, both Stateside and while in Germany, have worked in various forums to include computerized 3-D animation, publication design, the illustration of 26 books plus other publications. She is continuing her portrait and calligraphic work, and always teach on the side. Multiple works like the shirts ³Kunstderivativ² (art derivative) and ³do not touch the art² or her collecting box ³Art Collector³ are stocked by Museum shops and Galleries in Europe.

Artikel Editionen Fabian has published 180 editions of 40 artists from 12 countries. The publisher has to date supplied the shops of 100 art museums in Germany and neighbouring countries www.artikel-editionen.com