The Order of Thoughts. Herbert Egl
In all their diversity of appearance, Herbert Egl’s paintings defy any unambiguous interpretation. Rather than clarity and unambiguity, the artist asks the viewer to recognise the ambiguity and ambivalence that arise from the processual nature and the transformation of things during the act of painting – painting as a quest for form and content, which both drives the work and urges the viewer not to draw hasty conclusions.
Titles such as ‘Coordinates’, ‘Cell Nucleus’, ‘Voice Mail’, ‘Event Horizon’ or ‘Found Objects’ not only refer to the interest in biological, cosmological or physical themes underlying his visual world, but also serve, through their respective artistic realisation, as evidence that the creation of the image itself can be understood as an organic process.
Within this process, the materiality of the painting media plays an essential role: At times, the acrylic is applied in thick, impasto-like layers, one on top of the other; at other times, it is reduced to a thin layer; or, as in ‘Fundstücke’, dried lumps of paint that have fallen onto the studio floor during the painting process are picked up and elevated to the status of new pictorial elements. In this way, microscopic, macroscopic, geological or urban structures emerge in a wondrous manner, setting no limits to the imagination and associations.
Herbert Egl, born in Stuttgart in 1953; studied at the State Academies of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart from 1975 to 1981; lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences for Design, Pforzheim, from 1986 to 1995. Herbert Egl lives and works in Stuttgart.