Hanns Kunitzberger
Painting
until end of August
Gallery Dierking is delighted to announce the first solo show of the Austrian painter Hanns Kunitzberger (*1955) in Zurich. On the occasion of the exhibition ABBILD 2002-2005 at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in winter 2024/25, we are proud to showcase an array of the artist's current and earlier artworks.
... for representing an object
through the complete absence of itself.
Hanns Kunitzberger 1996
Hanns Kunitzberger’s paintings are events of silence. They embody a splendour of simplicity as if the early morning sunlight quietly ascends upon the mountains. The painter articulates the immanence of existence while simultaneously capturing the transcendence of time.
Remarkably thin layers of closely related pigments, penetrating each other, are laid on top of each other until their concentration reveals a unique pictorial space. Each painting emerges from the experience of thought and dedication to time. The starting point is always the search for emptiness because only through mental liberation can colours and inspirations find their own paths into the structure and unite with each other. It is the striving for purposelessness that Hanns Kunitzberger continually pursues and whose threads ultimately weave a picture.
Hanns Kunitzberger's compositions historically align with a long artistic tradition. Landscapes, seascapes or studies of the sky, the interplay of light and atmosphere, as sought after by the Romantics or Impressionists, are reflected in his artworks. Think of John Constable's cloud studies, William Turner's fiery scenes, or Paul Cézanne's landscapes. Undoubtedly, further parallels can be traced, such as Mark Rothko's colour field painting or Helen Frankenthaler's fluidity or colour palette. Turning decisively away from the figurative allows more room to explore the inner world. Their commonality is the intention to create a mood that is not just observed but sensed, stimulating an emotional experience that resonates with the viewer.
"Art is a harmony parallel to nature. [The painter's] entire desire must remain silent. He must silence all voices of bias within himself, forget, forget, make silence, be a perfect echo. Then the entire landscape will be depicted on his light-sensitive plate," explained Cézanne to the French art critic Gasquet in an interview around 1900.
Cézanne saw the task of the painter as making silence and silencing all voices of bias. When in summer, a butterfly alights on a flower and swings in the meadow wind with closed wings—who, if not art, can capture this harmony? Of course, the artistic authorship cannot be eradicated, as the painter performs the act of painting and thus produces the artefact. However, like Cézanne, Hanns Kunitzberger's artistic endeavour also stems from the desire to set aside one’s individual sentiments. Only then can a picture emerge without intentionality. His entire desire must coax into silence. Hence, he can become a listener. Hence, he can become an echo.
An echo reverberates through Kunitzberger's oeuvre. It is the echo of being-in-the-world, which encompasses the fundamental state of human existence. Meant is the inseparable unity between world and subject, characterised by an unwavering familiarity. For Hanns Kunitzberger, painting is a continuously reprising journey to that nucleus where the primal source of existence flows and from which all images, like relatives, derive. The paintings emanate a fundamental mood whose frequency seeks resonance with a subject. This interdependence is inherent to the nature of his artworks.
At the same time, the echo dictates the mental picture’s fundamental mood and takes hold of the subject. This fundamental mood corresponds to a voice that permeates and determines the mental image and initiates wonder in the subject. In ancient philosophy, for example, for Plato, wonder and amazement triggered the initial thinking process. However, thinking does not happen arbitrarily because the fundamental mood is the organising framework for the terms, definitions, and phrases arising from thought.
This circular process liberates the experience of the image. Each image becomes a reflection of one's imagination. The moment of realisation is as if the first snowdrops rise from the snow, and the dew of sunlight glitters in one's eyelashes. Here, an interplay emerges, for image actualisation draws from the tension between appearing and disappearing, amidst which the subject oscillates. The image reveals and conceals itself again and again. Contradiction surfaces because the becoming of the image is and is not. The purposelessness of the experience can capture the meaningful coherence of the motif. The becoming of the image is never-ending since completeness lies in its incompleteness. In this gravitation, the present detaches from the aimless flow and imbues it significantly. The past and the future encompass the present and reflect upon thoughts in the becoming of the image. Thus, thinking contains all the potentiality of becoming and, at the same time, presents the only limitation.
Each painting is a living, ever-changing whole that becomes present by being together. The analogue process of human thinking illuminates the painting. The veil is lifted through one's listening—as if the evening sun in the forest gilds the trunks. In this process, thinking becomes a remembrance of the past through which the sunshine gleams. In the moment of appearance, a benevolent sense of being touched emerges. Mirthful thinking also explores the yet unwritten spaces before grasping onto concepts. Serenity settles in. It is as if the herds passing by the meadows can be heard at the distant heights of the ear. There, where it tinkles and tinkles. There, the heart becomes merry and seeing turns into pleasure. However, while thoughts forge their way into consciousness, spoken words fail in articulation.
Amidst the well-tempered chord, both comedy and tragedy can unfold. In the epilogue, the subject and image unite in the intersubjective, linguistic dimension, and the image accepts worldliness. The observation becomes a contemplative element that counteracts temporal and local dispersion and preserves the riddle of the everlasting. The image becomes an event of silence. In its unobtrusiveness, it sounds and rustles.
In a time of temporal dispersion, haste, and breathlessness, Hanns Kunitzberger creates places to linger, where the boundless melody of human existence echoes—as if sudden sun rays break through heavy rain clouds and shimmer over the darkness of the meadows. The loud silence of infinity rustles in his paintings and calls for gazing and listening. Hence, the concealed and the ever-present within us emerge and simultaneously fade away in their transience. Hanns Kunitzberger's paintings immerse us in timeless temporality, far away from busyness, where time still scents and blooms. There, where the bluebell tinkles.
(Original essay published in German)
Samantha Grob
April 2024
Hanns Kunitzberger
Painting
until end of August
... for representing an object
through the complete absence of itself.
Hanns Kunitzberger 1996
Gallery Dierking is delighted to announce the first solo show of the Austrian painter Hanns Kunitzberger (*1955) in Zurich. On the occasion of the exhibition ABBILD 2002-2005 at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in winter 2024/25, we are proud to showcase an array of the artist's current and earlier artworks.
Hanns Kunitzberger’s paintings are events of silence. They embody a splendour of simplicity as if the early morning sunlight quietly ascends upon the mountains. The painter articulates the immanence of existence while simultaneously capturing the transcendence of time.
Remarkably thin layers of closely related pigments, penetrating each other, are laid on top of each other until their concentration reveals a unique pictorial space. Each painting emerges from the experience of thought and dedication to time. The starting point is always the search for emptiness because only through mental liberation can colours and inspirations find their own paths into the structure and unite with each other. It is the striving for purposelessness that Hanns Kunitzberger continually pursues and whose threads ultimately weave a picture.
Hanns Kunitzberger's compositions historically align with a long artistic tradition. Landscapes, seascapes or studies of the sky, the interplay of light and atmosphere, as sought after by the Romantics or Impressionists, are reflected in his artworks. Think of John Constable's cloud studies, William Turner's fiery scenes, or Paul Cézanne's landscapes. Undoubtedly, further parallels can be traced, such as Mark Rothko's colour field painting or Helen Frankenthaler's fluidity or colour palette. Turning decisively away from the figurative allows more room to explore the inner world. Their commonality is the intention to create a mood that is not just observed but sensed, stimulating an emotional experience that resonates with the viewer.
"Art is a harmony parallel to nature. [The painter's] entire desire must remain silent. He must silence all voices of bias within himself, forget, forget, make silence, be a perfect echo. Then the entire landscape will be depicted on his light-sensitive plate," explained Cézanne to the French art critic Gasquet in an interview around 1900.
Cézanne saw the task of the painter as making silence and silencing all voices of bias. When in summer, a butterfly alights on a flower and swings in the meadow wind with closed wings—who, if not art, can capture this harmony? Of course, the artistic authorship cannot be eradicated, as the painter performs the act of painting and thus produces the artefact. However, like Cézanne, Hanns Kunitzberger's artistic endeavour also stems from the desire to set aside one’s individual sentiments. Only then can a picture emerge without intentionality. His entire desire must coax into silence. Hence, he can become a listener. Hence, he can become an echo.
An echo reverberates through Kunitzberger's oeuvre. It is the echo of being-in-the-world, which encompasses the fundamental state of human existence. Meant is the inseparable unity between world and subject, characterised by an unwavering familiarity. For Hanns Kunitzberger, painting is a continuously reprising journey to that nucleus where the primal source of existence flows and from which all images, like relatives, derive. The paintings emanate a fundamental mood whose frequency seeks resonance with a subject. This interdependence is inherent to the nature of his artworks.
At the same time, the echo dictates the mental picture’s fundamental mood and takes hold of the subject. This fundamental mood corresponds to a voice that permeates and determines the mental image and initiates wonder in the subject. In ancient philosophy, for example, for Plato, wonder and amazement triggered the initial thinking process. However, thinking does not happen arbitrarily because the fundamental mood is the organising framework for the terms, definitions, and phrases arising from thought.
This circular process liberates the experience of the image. Each image becomes a reflection of one's imagination. The moment of realisation is as if the first snowdrops rise from the snow, and the dew of sunlight glitters in one's eyelashes. Here, an interplay emerges, for image actualisation draws from the tension between appearing and disappearing, amidst which the subject oscillates. The image reveals and conceals itself again and again. Contradiction surfaces because the becoming of the image is and is not. The purposelessness of the experience can capture the meaningful coherence of the motif. The becoming of the image is never-ending since completeness lies in its incompleteness. In this gravitation, the present detaches from the aimless flow and imbues it significantly. The past and the future encompass the present and reflect upon thoughts in the becoming of the image. Thus, thinking contains all the potentiality of becoming and, at the same time, presents the only limitation.
Each painting is a living, ever-changing whole that becomes present by being together. The analogue process of human thinking illuminates the painting. The veil is lifted through one's listening—as if the evening sun in the forest gilds the trunks. In this process, thinking becomes a remembrance of the past through which the sunshine gleams. In the moment of appearance, a benevolent sense of being touched emerges. Mirthful thinking also explores the yet unwritten spaces before grasping onto concepts. Serenity settles in. It is as if the herds passing by the meadows can be heard at the distant heights of the ear. There, where it tinkles and tinkles. There, the heart becomes merry and seeing turns into pleasure. However, while thoughts forge their way into consciousness, spoken words fail in articulation.
Amidst the well-tempered chord, both comedy and tragedy can unfold. In the epilogue, the subject and image unite in the intersubjective, linguistic dimension, and the image accepts worldliness. The observation becomes a contemplative element that counteracts temporal and local dispersion and preserves the riddle of the everlasting. The image becomes an event of silence. In its unobtrusiveness, it sounds and rustles.
In a time of temporal dispersion, haste, and breathlessness, Hanns Kunitzberger creates places to linger, where the boundless melody of human existence echoes—as if sudden sun rays break through heavy rain clouds and shimmer over the darkness of the meadows. The loud silence of infinity rustles in his paintings and calls for gazing and listening. Hence, the concealed and the ever-present within us emerge and simultaneously fade away in their transience. Hanns Kunitzberger's paintings immerse us in timeless temporality, far away from busyness, where time still scents and blooms. There, where the bluebell tinkles.
(Original essay published in German)
Samantha Grob
April 2024
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