Egmont Hartwig
Lives and works in Dornbirn, AT
Realism is not merely a depiction of reality/ the world around us, it’s a search for the ‘real’. The surface of things is superficial, realism is an exploration of the subtext to search for an approximation of the ‘real’. Approximation, while we could never completely comprehend the elusive essence of things. The objects we see/ he paints are like a connotation, free to interpret and allegorise. With these objects/ ideas he construes his narrative. The motives he uses are not the usual suspects of the still life Metier, they do have to have a certain depth that resonates with his recurring and ever more focused concepts. Concepts like: the passage of time, the temporary, obscurement, just to name a few.
The surface of the painting is paramount, he tends to switch between a more precise and a more painterly style as of late, detail remains a key aspect in both instances. His work tends to be quite deliberate, nuanced and calm, he uses a limited palette and find as many nuances as possible there in. Balance in the amount of contrast is an important departing point, contrast not just in brightness but in tonality, shape, color et cetera. Despite appearances he does not strive for perfection, photorealism or hyperrealism. It’s more an investigation into form that gets out of hand on a regular basis. Precision is often misconstrued. He sees it as a means to comprehend the object, not slavishly copying a photograph but rather understanding the intricacies of the subject, painted from life. All this in order to gain the freedom to paint from memory that which he sees in his minds eye. Some of his more realistic paintings have been painted without the use of any reference material.
Image Copyright Egmont Hartwig.
