Exhibition
Herbert Brandl's mountain images reflect a consistent development of his long-standing preoccupation with the phenomenon of landscape - in terms of abstract content. His interest lies not in landscape as such, but as a projection screen for living and constructed states of being. An important theme in these images is the explicit use of a realistic vocabulary of forms. The distinction between realism and abstraction no longer appears significant.
Two space-encompassing, similarly composed images dominate the central rooms.
In the foreground, a virtuoso painterly performance depicts a pasture up in the mountains, creating a clear border separating the image from a high alpine massive visible some distance behind it. Brandl used a classical picture separation, following a simple compositional principle, which could also be understood as a contextual requirement dictated by the brief moment, experienced by many visitors to the Alps,of that final step as the mighty alpine vista opens up before the spectator. Herbert Brandl captures this moment of plain sublimity, contrasting the traditional mountain image with a more differential approach to the subject. It is thus that the main motif here alters from the banal worship of power to a more humane manner of handling experiences like love, fear, beauty, danger and seduction. It is an explicit and unsparing look at the topic, a balancing act between affirmative glorification and a cool maintenance of one's distance.
