A Mountain in the Box

Isidora Krstić

Painting is today being recognized again and seen in a new light. The developments and achievements in painting made in the period of the post-war Modern, to which the work of Austrian artist Richard Hirschbäck belongs, run in parallel to the appearance and evolution of various types of media. In a context where the artistic discourse is being shifted from painting to new media, the achievements in painting in the interval between the war and Information era represent a particularly interesting period in Art History. Rather than following the new developments and possibilities that technology brought, Richard Hirschbäck was more concerned with the transitions which the natural surrounding went through such as the urbanisation of small environments and loss of diversity within them.

The investigations Richard Hirschbäck partook in throughout most of his prolific practice represent dealing with problems of space and spatiality within a painting particularly dedicating himself in the later stages to a type of a coverage which appeared as layers of square sheets or fields; followed by experimentation with colour as a method to denote planes of space, surrealist-type landscapes and an often and elaborate play with the figurative – abstract dichotomy seen particularly through reoccurring elements such as large glass shards, the human head, a particular plant, a chair and playing a significant role – language and text.

Upon coming into personal contact with the work of Richard Hirschbäck, it is clear that in his case, reproductions in the form of digital images do little justice to viewing the actual works. His paintings cannot be strictly seen as ‘painted surfaces’, that’s why physical presence in viewing them is key. The paintings almost play with our urges to feel them with our hands – and partake in their physicality in this world (as if doing so would make them more real and thus more ‘true’).

Richard Hirschbaeck’s career spanned more than five decades. His work is varied and versatile, at times extremely contrasting and yet bound by a certain familiarity, as if all parts belong to one distinct whole. Upon closer examination, each of the phases that he went through can be firstly seen as initiating with studious research and investigation (1), followed by a period of stabilizing (2) and concluding with a sort of dissolution and breakage (3) which allows for the next investigations to take place.

Of course, this structure as well as the following breakdown on decades represents a loose framework and serves more as a guideline that helps create a better image of the whole oeuvre and allows the work to be followed along a timeline.

1960’s

This decade can be characterized as a period of, on one hand, figurative in-depth studies of form, light and colour and intense and regular experimentation on the other. The paintings move from a pointillist analysis of form and colour to figurative and geometric abstraction. Between 1962 – 1973 six of his children were born.

1970’s

The seventies represent a period where figuration in the painting of Richard Hirschbäck is ‘abstracted’ but form still preserved. In terms of form, everything is possible. This is a period where also extraordinary pieces that represent dream-like surrealistic landscapes come in. Thematically, the artist here can be seen as playing with archetypal forms and almost challenges the observer to go into his or her own subconscious and dares to examine themselves. From the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties, he was more outward than ever and was joining various artistic groups and attending a number of symposia.

1980’s

The end of the seventies is marked by a moment where all that has been built up, maintained and securely stabilized in the previous period slowly starts to decompose, and no longer holds as true. In 1989, his son David passed away, which had a tremendous impact on him. As if almost palpable in his work, at the end of this decade, an amount of disturbance and hesitation come in which is reflected in the abstract-expressionist paintings; like all that was built up is no more sustainable. Here form begins to be protruded by foreign elements and gestures. Walls that have been kept up slowly start to crumble and new foundations must be found and constructed.

1990’s

If the latter is seen as an extremely charged period, it is followed by a point of culmination and settling down. The ‘disturbance’ is refined and all excess elements are cleaned up. It is here where gesture as such occupies most of the painting. The gesture appears as if it has been worked on and refined for decades, to be able to finally achieve this point. Of course, it is not always fair to assume the stance which sees the artist as climbing up a hill and thus finally arriving at the summit. This viewpoint could easily undermine the previous periods and regard them as transitional. It is important to view the whole opus as a set of occurrences, which in one instance connect to form an arch or some sort of trajectory; but in the other, it is exciting to view each occurrence in a rather open field as a timeless instant which can stand on its own.

It is exactly in this period where the canvas is no longer just a surface, a ‘carrier’ for the narrative. The meaning of the painting as a whole shifts and the materiality of the wooden frame, texture of the canvas and its place in space are put forward. The loosely mounted canvas on the frame, sometimes attached using only pins, suggests both an urgency in transferring the message as well as pointing out that the canvas is actually a material and formal element of the painting as much as the paint. The paint and canvas together step out as an object which denotes a more conceptualized approach. In one painting, the author emphasizes this aspect even more by utilising a dry brush and letting the facture of the coarse canvas surface and play an equal role in the materiality of the work.

2000’s

The first half of the 2000’s represents a continuation of the discoveries that took place at the end of the previous decade. Perfection of execution has no role here and the painting is broken down to pure gesture. Large format paintings which in height and width follow and often exceed the average height of a person, when viewed consume and draw the viewer into a field of contemplation. It is apparent that the size of the canvas is something that dominates and as such also suggests a determination of the artist to completely control the surface regardless of the challenges that come with it. The physical presence of the viewer is in relation to these works of utmost importance. It is as though only by being consumed with the painting and its presence, and trying to relate with it through a bodily/physical relation, is it possible to comprehend and experience it fully.

‘A mountain in a box’, a construction which also serves as the title to this text, is seen in one of Richard Hirschbäck’s drawings. It may reveal that Richard Hirschbäck is not a ‘plein-air’ painter nor does he reconcile to transferring the beauties of his surrounding to the canvas. His work concerns the very human nature, wherever that human is, in making sense of his surrounding and his inner world. These two sometimes seem to find peace, but are at times in dissonance – and it is specifically these transitional, unsettling moments that are fearlessly dealt with, researched and investigated; and probe into our very archetypical understanding of the world.

Instead of a definitive conclusion, this overview should in fact represent a commencement of the effort to point out the contributions made by Richard Hirschbäck to the history of Austrian art and to ensure that his work enters the discourse and is made available to a wider audience.