RAUTEN TRAURIG - LA LANGUEUR DES LOSANGES - SAD FACETS

THOMAS HUBER (1955-)

Rather than offering us realities in his work, Swiss painter Thomas Huber (b. 1955) provides us with locations that require us to think about their artistic fiction. Like an architect, he interweaves the picture space with design structures and by allowing motifs, such as diamonds and squares, to become a determining element of the work, he offers us an ironic reflection on the modernist myth.
The melancholic-sounding exhibition title (rauten traurig / sad facets) conveys the artist’s critical outlook, which calls into question the possibilities of a real encounter between the viewer and the work of art. By presenting his work to the public, Huber provides an occasion for this encounter, and his philosophical and poetic texts allow the viewer to experience the picture space as a meaning space and the picture depth as profundity.

The illustrated book was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Thomas Huber. rauten traurig”, 2008, MARTa Herford, 2008/2009, Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Nîmes, and 2009, Kunsthalle Tübingen.

Edited by Marta Herford. Preface by Jan Hoet, Martin Hellmold, and Françoise Cohen. Authors Wolfgang Ullrich and Thomas Huber.

Biography
1955 Born in Zurich
1977-1978 Kunstgewerbeschule Basel
1979 Royal College of Art London
1980-1983 Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Fritz Schwegler’s class
1991-1999 Professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig
1992 Temporary Director of the Centraal Museum Utrecht
2000-2002 Chairman of the Deutscher Künstlerbund (Association of German Artists)
2001 Künstlermuseum: Reinstallation of the collection with Bogomir Ecker in the museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf
Lives and works in Berlin since 2008

In addition a facsimile edition of a recently produced scetch-book by the artist will be published.