MARTIN C. HERBST
Martin C. Herbst (b. 1965, Salzburg) made his international breakthrough with his series Spheres, which he presented for the first time at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2007. In January 2018, Herbst had his first exhibition at Zemack Contemporary Art in Israel which included two series: Spheres and Hidden Treasures.
Spheres consisted of mirror-polished stainless-steel sculptures. Half of the sculpture remains bare metal; a convex mirror displaying fascinating reflections of the surrounding space. The other half reflects an oil painting painted directly on the stainless-steel itself. The paintings are of expressive figurative subjects. In this strikingly natural symbiosis, painting factually and virtually conquers the 3rd dimension, fluctuating and offering multiple points of view. Resting simply on the floor without a base, the spheres can be turned in any direction. The faces painted upon them can be looked at from a variety of perspectives, whereby their expressions seem to change according to the beholder’s standpoint.
Martin Herbst. Hidden Treasures. © Zemack Contemporary Art. Art Market Magazine GOLD LIST Special Edition
In Herbst’s Hidden Treasures series, the painted image is sometimes only visible in its reflection. This series forces the beholder to view the faces primarily in the reflections created by the complex deformations and folds of the aluminum upon which they are painted. On account of the bends and irregularities of the mirrored surface, they appear distorted and animated. The physicality of the painted surface becomes immaterial, enabling the normally static and unchanging medium of painting to advance into a mutable, dynamic dimension.
Martin C. Herbst. Hidden Treasure 68. Oil on Crumpled Mirrored Aluminium. 135x180x62 cm (Detail)
In a reflection on Vermeer, the curves and bends of the support also open up unexpected perspectives. There is only a single standpoint from which the famous face of the Girl with the Pearl Earring is “right”. When the beholder moves, it begins to stretch, condense or dissolve.
Martin Herbst. Hidden Treasures. © Zemack Contemporary Art.
Martin C. Herbst pushes the limits of traditional painting. Most of his delicately executed paintings expand to the third dimension without denying their two-dimensional origin. over the last decades, he devoted his attention, more or less exclusively, to the human image. His work demonstrates an innovative and unconventional approach to the portrait and to painting in general, which the artist liberates from its bondage to the two-dimensional surface, conquering the third dimension.
Martin.C.Herbst. Sphere Installation. © Zemack Contemporary Art.
