Female Voices in Art: Irma Braat, Visual Artist

Irma Braat (b. 1971, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a visual artist. After a receiving a degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Amsterdam, a teacher’s degree in Biology (trained by Rien van Krieken), and a two-year training in various coaching and counseling techniques by Erika Stern and Diana Shmukler, she started to study at the Wackers Art Academy in Amsterdam at the age of 29. Irma paints portraits, interiors and models in oils and is a teacher at that same academy. She lives and works in Amsterdam or on request as an artist-in-residence or guest-teacher elsewhere. In 2017 she won the first Dutch Portrait Award (De Nederlandse Portretprijs) with a self-portrait together with her twin sister. Her two children play an important role in her paintings. Irma Braat has exhibited her work regularly, mainly in the Netherlands.

Could you tell us something about your role in the art world?

My role is a small one: I am one of many artists who paint from nature: mostly portraits, models and interiors. But I see myself as one of the better craftswomen in portraiture and as a good teacher - for those who like my way of teaching. I am ambitious on a low level. To be one of the dots in a large picture is fine; someone once described me as having a small radius of action, but with a direct line to whatever is above us. I would like to think of my work as something that makes sense out of the chaos around me; to mold all the recurring shapes and forms in this crazy world into something I like to look at, and maybe point out to others the magical real-life things that I have in front of me.

What did you enjoy about being a part of this project?

Being part of a diverse group of women in art feels like being part of a giant web of daredevils. Also the fact that Carla shows real women, and is not making fake women out of her subjects. I appreciate that.

Do you have a favourite artist?

This changes over time, but at this moment it is Joan Eardley (1921-1963), a Scottish artist. The way she painted and drew children and their environment is so honest, so expressive - it humbles me. I look at her paintings, just to gather courage. Also, there are days I can’t stop looking at Matisse: his works are a breath of pure oxygen.

What is your earliest memory involving art?

At three I asked my mom to draw a girl, just like me. She scribbled a stick-figure with a high-hat (I am still wondering why!) and it struck me that this was something I would have to do myself. It took me five years, but then I painted my twin sister at the age of eight. At the age of six I saw a framed poster of a very odd face at our neighbors, which fascinated me. It was the first time that I came across a Picasso. Then, at the age of eleven, my class visited the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam where The Beanery by Edward Kienholz was exhibited. It still haunts my dreams. Whenever it is on view, I will go and enter that bar, just to enjoy the mere madness of this work of art.

Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world?

I am grateful that I can work as a painter in this time and age in Europe. But at the same time, the inequality between men and women in the art world is still a fact. When I became a mother, I started to notice that people talk differently about fathers who are artists than they do about mothers who are artists. Men can have three to four children - they still are able to maintain a ‘fresh dynamic painter’ position and they are treated as such. And when men paint children, comments are made that it is so clever that they can quickly capture a moment in time. When women paint children, it is considered sentimental and sweet. Not a big thing but it tires me sometimes. Last year at a vernissage I heard a female spokesperson talk about her encounter with a female portrait artist; she spoke of her as highly professional. I thought, why mention that? Did you have doubts about her professionality? I also have a difficult relationship with books about women artists. Although they are beautifully made, and contain so much information I want to read and look at. At the same time, it is a box that all these women are put into. They are separated from ‘mainstream’ art, by putting them into a separate book.

What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it? 

This apron has been part of my entire professional painting life. It is one of the most beautiful garments. Because, in the end a lot comes down to the work that I did, not to all my ideas that float around. And it helps me to make stronger compositions while painting self-portraits.

Has the Covid health crisis had an impact on your daily practice?

It has. I had enough commissions, but I could not teach the way I liked. The zoom lessons I gave were both a source of income and stress. My profession became a very solitary one. During Covid, I have felt so alone in a way, and also sad. But I always felt blessed with my profession and confident about it.

What are you currently working on?

I am always working on creating more free time for myself, as most artists do. Being an entrepreneur and having to earn your living keeps you efficient, but it is sometime killing your creativity. A real challenge to say the least. As a portraitist in heart and soul, I am planning to make portraits of models or friends, in a surrounding of graphic patterns on clothing, cushions and blankets. Perhaps I should focus on painting children a bit more? This will be my starting point. Who knows what will happen.

Could you mention a project, an institution that, or a person who has been important in/inspiring for your career and why?

At the art academy (Wackers Academy in Amsterdam) I finally found the right teachers who taught me the magical knowledge about different ways of seeing, of translating all this chaos into something new. I was so eager that I felt I didn’t sleep throughout these four years. I learnt so much, even from the teachers that were less kind or involved.  Also, I have two sisters (one of them is my twin). They always encourage me, and knew long before I did, that painting is what I should do.