Oskar Schmidt

CENTRO

Spiel mit den Sehgewohnheiten

Oskar Schmidt’s (b. 1977; lives and works in Berlin and Leipzig) photographic series Centro (2017–19) takes inspiration from painting for an exploration of the traditions of portraiture and still life. Schmidt’s protagonists are residents of São Paulo; the pictures were taken during two extended research stays in Brazil. Rather than showing his models in their wonted environments, he has them pose before a monochrome beige backdrop in the studio. Their vacant gazes avoid the camera, while the manifestly staged nature of the shots lends their gestures an air of perfunctory concision. Using digital editing tools, Schmidt underscores the echoes in his motifs of masters like Cézanne and the young Picasso: resolving selected pixels yields fields of color that suggest scumbling.

Schmidt’s multifaceted pictures show humans who have long been relegated to the periphery of Western art and who now engage in a smart play with the expectations raised by a collective visual memory that is predominantly a European construction. The book presents the complete series, accompanied by essays by the art historian Ellen Tani and the curator Thomas Seelig.

An artist’s edition will be released by DISTANZ in conjunction with the book.