Hubert Schmalix: Tremor

Hubert Schmalix became internationally recognised in the 1980s as a representative of “New Painting.” After an extended stay in the Philippines, he found his style, which is characterised by expressive colours, strong contours and naive figuration. In the exhibition at the Schlossmuseum in Linz, he is presenting current works that are being shown for the first time.

For Schmalix, the main source of his clearly defined and reduced formal language is the world of comics. Every figure, every landscape element and every object is designed in a two-dimensional way and given a strong contour. He often positions individual characters in a pictorial space that is defined only by a horizontal line and two background colours. The artist stylises them with oversized hands and feet, while emphasising their emotional states through expressive facial expressions and gestures.

By translating the sign language of the small-format comic medium into large-format oil paintings, the artist develops an unrivalled painterly effect. The decisive factor is that Schmalix concentrates on the purely pictorial language.His depictions of landscapes have no counterparts in reality, but are the result of the artist's inner reflection. 
There are no texts, sequences or actions associated with the pictures. Schmalix isolates his heroes or anti-heroes without a narrative context and concentrates on the depiction of their condition or feelings, which sometimes stand for conditions that are generally human.

Consequently, Hubert Schmalix also refrains from explaining the exhibition title “Tremor,” which in its pure meaning refers to a disease-related tremor whose causes are unexplored. The stories and interpretations of the pictorial content or contexts of his works are left solely to our imagination.

Hubert Schmalix reinforces a special kind of perception by creating landscape paintings in the form of a panorama especially for the Linz exhibition. Visitors can immerse themselves in his virtual world of landscape with the help of 3D glasses. 

Hubert Schmalix, born in Graz in 1952, lives and works in Los Angeles.