Martin Schnur's second solo exhibition at the bechter kastowsky gallery in Vienna combines three media of painting: partly large-format canvas works, smaller copper works and pencil drawings, which can also be categorised as intimate in their presentation.
For a long time, painting was seen as a way of capturing the so-called "view from the window" and bringing it into the interior. The medium has long since moved beyond this question; alongside the depiction of nature, abstraction, negation and even the radical erasure of painting are legitimate and recognised. Martin Schnur, however, deliberately returns to this credo of values - not in his painting style, but in his depiction. In his well-known picture-in-picture works, for example, he brings the "view from the window" into the picture, integrating it into his interior depictions and allowing the viewer to linger. Film stills - frozen sequences - are what we are looking at. The window is extended, even supplemented, by Martin Schnur through the cinema screen. The appearance of the painting, however, no longer has anything to do with the illusion inherent in the window's motto. Schnur's application of colour is free and gestural. In his work "Bad Gastein", for example, it is not only the mountain river that seems to flow, but also the colour. The colour is applied openly and glazed. The use of silver leaf intensifies the mood of light in the picture.
The copper support also transmits this reflection of the background into the pictorial space. Martin Schnur uses the colour of the copper itself as a colour medium. In contrast to the canvas, the artist is required to work faster and engage directly with the picture support.
A directness that is also implied in the drawing. Here, a figure is depicted with a quick stroke, which in its appearance suggests a space, but which is completely omitted. Fine, mostly small-format drawings are presented intimately in the exhibition. Like chamber music, the viewer can immerse themselves in the quiet world of the drawing - placed with a quick, sure hand.
Illusion and irritation are terms that often appear in descriptions of Martin Schnur's work. A false perception of reality. "Illusions recommend themselves by the fact that they spare us feelings of unpleasure and allow us to enjoy satisfaction instead," says Sigmund Freud. "Disillusion" is what Martin Schnur now calls the new exhibition. A term from psychology that carries the basic tenor of resignation. However, it is only through the willingness to recognise disillusionment that it can be overcome and a new, fulfilling path embarked upon.
