Herwig Schubert’s large-format oil paintings from the 1960s are painted with vehemence and dynamism, rich in contrast and explosive in colour and imagery. Schubert’s themes are Nordic landscapes (Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, northern Canada), the human figure (nudes, portraits), and battle scenes.

Drawing on the expressive techniques of abstract expressionism, Schubert’s landscape paintings bring to life the eruptive formations and colours of the northern countries he travelled through.

Large-format landscapes

Monumental paintings

“They are works of oppressive relevance.”

Dmitry Kaminker
Sculptor (St. Petersburg)

The furious imagery and painterly style of the monumental works ‘Apocalyptic Horsemen (Triptych)’ and ‘Cavalry Battle’ mark a high point in Schubert’s oil painting. The driving force behind these paintings is clearly his wartime experiences of violence and destruction and a powerless outrage at the deadly devastation. The horses appear in the triptych as carriers and amplifiers of human aggression and in the second painting as a symbol of mourning for the victims.

As these paintings were at odds with the abstract approach favoured during the post-war period, Schubert first presented the ‘Apocalyptic Horsemen’ and ‘Cavalry Battle’ to the public in 2011/12 at the Salzburg Museum in the New Residence in Salzburg.

Large-format figural paintings

The majority of the artist’s large-format figure paintings from the 1970s are female nudes who fill the entire canvas space. They are more studies and expressions of essence than depictions of specific human figures.

The central positioning and dynamic compositions of the bodies, the way the gazes are turned towards us or away, and the black painted faces lend the figures a strong sense of presence and independence that evokes the mythical figures in egg tempera from Schubert’s later work.