Herbert Brandl
born 1959 in Graz, Austria
lives and works in Vienna, Austria
I don’t have to have seen the mountain to paint it; I don’t have to have been there on site to feel the air or see the light. All of that comes about in the painting, the atmosphere, the light – it’s an inner process. I paint my paintings out of the movement, the brushstroke, the brush size, the paint.”
read inGerman
Herbert Brandl studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Herbert Tasquil and Peter Weibel. From 2004 to 2019, Brandl taught at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany. Herbert Brandl’s works are characterized by an impressive presence, originality, and powerful use of color. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, his paintings range from mountains, rivers, forests, and hyenas to airy, abstract compositions with luminous colors. When Herbert Brandl brings nature’s atmospheric qualities into his pictures, painting and nature touch in moments of light, movement, perpetuating energy, and time. Even in his most abstract compositions, we imagine the sun breaking through the clouds, streams flowing, or leaves and meadows showing off their green. Brandl’s pictures are located at that point where the idea of a natural object and the emotionality of color fields become one. He works with the physical conditions of color, creating “unintentional,” fresh pictures. His painting method is brisk, intuitive, and devoid of purposeful notions, and he “concentrates like a Zen painter“ (Herbert Brandl). His finished works possess a striking spatiality and atmosphere, also in terms of light. They are compact, visual events of great painterly freedom as well as visionary pictures with an imaginary depth. Herbert Brandl represented Austria in 2007 at the Venice Biennale. He took part at the documenta IX in Kassel in 1992 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1989. Selected solo exhibtions: Belvedere 21, Vienna (2020); Kunsthaus Graz (2020); Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2020); Haus der Kunst St. Josef, Solothurn (2016); Osthaus Museum Hagen (2016); Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna (2012); Albertina, Vienna (2010); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2009); Kunsthalle Basel (1999); Secession, Vienna (1998); Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1994); Kunsthalle Bern (1991); Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent (1991); Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (1984). Selected museum collections: Albertina, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Museu Serralves, Porto; mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Renaissance Society, Chicago; Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz.
Selected Works
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2022
acrylic on canvas
250 x 270 cm (98 3/8 x 106 1/8 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2022
acrylic on canvas
300 x 200 cm (118 x 78 3/4 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2022
acrylic on canvas
3 parts, each 50 x 40 cm (19 2/3 x 15 3/4 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Ohne Titel, 2015
oil on canvas
200 x 300 cm (78 3/4 x 118 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2012
oil on canvas
200 x 400 cm (79 x 158 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Cats & Rats, 2021
bronze lacquered
43 parts, total dm 66 cm (26 in.), h 8,5 cm (3 3/8 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2020
patinated bronze
53 x 31 x 44 cm (20 7/8 x 12 1/4 x 17 3/8 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2012
monotype, oil paint on Lana mould made paper 640g, Studio Chavanne Pechmann
plate: 150 x 113 cm (59 x 44 1/2 in.), paper: 162 x 125 cm (63 3/4 x 49 in.), framed 165 x 128 cm (65 x 50 in.)
Herbert Brandl
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on handmade paper
76 x 56 cm (29 7/8 x 22 in.), framed 96 x 74 cm (37 3/4 x 29 1/8 in.)
Public Exhibitions
Gallery Exhibitions
Group Exhibition
5 Dec 2000 – 6 Feb 2001
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITIONKatharina Gosse
Jessica Stockholder
Herbert Brandl
Robert ZandvlietEinführung: Dr. Jochen Poetter
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
Exhibition
24 Nov 1999 – 22 Jan 2000
MASTERPRINTSThéodore Géricault, Maurice de Vlaminck, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Henri Matisse, James Ensor, Paul Revere, Édouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Lyonel Feininger, Félix Vallotton, Max Beckmann, Pierre Bonnard, Emil Nolde, Paul Klee, Helmut Federle, Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Christian Eckart, Donald Sultan, Herbert Brandl, Sol LeWitt, Imi Knoebel, Robert Rauschenberg, William Bailey, David Salle, Jonathan Lasker and others
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
Exhibition
27 Nov 1998 – 9 Jan 1999
Herbert Brandl
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
Exhibition
24 Oct 1997 – 3 Jan 1998
Herbert Brandl
Adrian Schiess
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
Group Exhibition
1 Dec 1995 – 2 Mar 1996
Herbert Brandl
Heinrich Dunst
Bernard Frize
Jakob Gasteiger
Ingo Meller
Adrian Schiess
Heimo Zobernig
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
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