Portraits and the Figure

The focus of Bertram Hasenauer’s work is the portrait, or rather the figure, although the latter, placed in front of a monochrome white or dark background, does not primarily function as a (naturalistic) depiction, but rather seeks to convey the idea of the portrait as such. ­Bertram Hasenauer thereby simultaneously ­offers us a highly differentiated view of the respective young persons, one that emphasizes what remains; all spontaneity and dynamism has departed from them, they appear androgynous and seem to be floating in space. Art critics have used the term Magic Realism in view of the almost metaphysical distance from reality that the figures seem to have moved to, a concept that the artist is said to have expanded to include a spiral of the enigmatic. Bertram Hasenauer uses pictures from journals and magazines as the basis for his work. He applies his colors as a thin film on a finely structured primer. The enigmatic impact of what, according to the artist, »appears to be a portrait turns out to be the idea of a pos­sible ­portrayed figure; what appears to be the image of a human figure immediately disappears into the vague spheres of the memory of a figure.«

Exhibitions:
Kunsthalle Memmingen, 1/4 – 23/7/2023
Galerie Ebensperger, Wien, 28/3 – 30/6/2023