Hubert Schmalix

Tremor
Schlossmuseum Linz

From Miniature Comic Strip to Sprawling Oil Painting

The painter Hubert Schmalix (b. Graz, 1952; lives and works in Los Angeles) rose to international renown in the 1980s as an exponent of the “New Painting.” The primary source for Schmalix’s crisply defined and spare formal idiom is the world of comic strips. Each figure, each landscape element, each object is composed of flat planes and boldly outlined. The stylized figures have outsize hands and feet; emotional states are emphasized by vivid facial expressions and gestures. By not associating his pictures with texts, sequences, or plots, Schmalix strips his heroes and heroines—or anti-heroes and anti-heroines—of all narrative context to put the focus on their frame of mind or feelings.

The exhibition at Schlossmuseum Linz brings the public debut of Schmalix’s most recent works. The publication presents a broader perspective on his oeuvre, enhanced by essays by Inga Kleinknecht, Günther Holler-Schuster, and Stefan Rothleitner.