"Painting on copper means precision work in terms of painting technique, even if the painting style is free, open and mobile - it is precisely then that masterly control of brush and colour is necessary in order to create a convincing picture.
Painting on copper thus also represents a heightened aggregate state of the act of painting. I therefore see Martin Schnur's choice of copper as the medium that most perfectly reflects his enthusiasm for painting as an act of creation."
(Dr. Renate Trnek, Director of the Painting Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna)
The exhibition "Peripheria" at the bechter kastowsky gallery focuses on small-format paintings on copper, which are at the centre of Schnur's current oeuvre. Mostly horizontal picture formats immerse us in vast expanses of land, which are broken up abstractly by sharp-edged picture segments. There is always an ambivalence between the illusionism of space, light and objects on the one hand and free impasto painting on the other.
"Dirty Carpet" - a second new block of works in the exhibition - consists primarily of monumental oil paintings on canvas with a carpet motif. The artist has chosen a type of painting that deviates from the sometimes predominant picture-in-picture mode. The scenes flow visually into one another, but are irritating - after all, what is a female figure stretched out on a carpet doing in an urban setting? New spaces of reality emerge.
Thus "Martin Schnur's paintings are interfaces between fictitious photorealistic nature and painterly intrinsic value. The contemporary meets the old masterly, coolness meets organic delicacy. Schnur is a picture maker and at the same time a subtle master painter."
(Florian Steininger, Curator Bank Austria Kunstforum)
Martin Schnur's first solo exhibition at the bechter kastowsky gallery in Vienna will be accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Renate Trnek, Dieter Sperl and Florian Steininger. The gallery is also offering an exclusive print edition; this is a monoprint (original print + monotype) in which each sheet is unique. The graphic was created by Steindruck Chavanne/Pechmann.
