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Hubert Scheibl is one of the most important representatives of Austrian abstract painting. In the 1980s, he belonged to the movement of the "Neue Wilden" ("New Wild Ones"), and his painting was characterised by an impasto, relief-like mode of expression. At the beginning of the 1990s it changed, becoming lighter, more flowing and more defined by its surface structure. Areas of colour were created without any reference to naturalistic form, reminiscent of the painting tradition of American artists such as Barnett Newman or Mark Rothko.

Nature, however, always remained the source of his inspiration – not her romantic, idyllic qualities but rather her wild, primal aspect, where we are at the mercy of multiple natural forces and powers. Scheibl’s paintings move in an intense field of tension between narrowness and expansiveness, chaos and order, evolution and restriction, and draw their power from the confrontation and fusion of these opposites. He describes his creative process as a constant struggle for expression. He is particularly fascinated by the moment before something is given a name. In this phase, which is difficult to put into words, he finds the greatest tension and excitement in the visual language.

Scheibl uses abstraction as a means of expression for representing nature. His aim is not the faithful reproduction of landscapes or realistic scenes, but rather the creation of a kind of visual sensory overload. His pictures require the viewer to constantly switch between an overall and a detailed view in order to fully grasp the depth and complexity of his painting.

(Ina Waldstein)