Hartmut Neumann. Strange Plains – Overgrown Irregularities

In his most recent paintings, Hartmut Neumann asks the big question: »What if ...?« and goes on a painterly quest to find the answer. What if... for whatever reason, humanity suddenly disappeared from the globe? Just like that. What would the big cities and metropolises look like in 2110 and in another one hundred years, in 2210?

It is an intellectual game, but it stands to reason that all vegetation, with its trees, bushes, plants, mosses, flowers, and fruits would flourish more easily and reclaim, or at least overgrow, their spaces. Neumann presents this »everywhere« in his large images of metropolises such as Beijing, Nairobi, or Amsterdam in an overflowing abundance with painterly force and subtle details. The overall color harmonies of the paintings are of note, which represent a certain vegetation or a geographically determined climate. Nevertheless, his pictures are not to be viewed under the label of landscape painting. Neumann does not reflect nature, nor does he elevate it in a romantic sense. Rather, they are visions of nature saturated in fantasy that are a long way from a landscape cultivated or domesticated by humans. The images evade conventional systems of interpretation, but follow their own, inherent logic – a logic of painting.

Artist: Hartmut Neumann
Editor: Hartmut Neumann, Anne Prenzler (für die Städtische Galerie KUBUS Hannover)
Text: Christoph Schreier, Carl-Friedrich Schröer
Design: Beck & Eggeling (Martina Löhle)

German, English
Hardcover, 23 x 30 cm
128 pages, 150 illustrations

Available works of the artist

Hartmut Neumann, Anspruchslos und schnellwüchsig (Ursprüngliche Ausblicke), 2018

Hartmut Neumann, Aufrechte Säule (Ursprüngliche Ausblicke), 2018

Hartmut Neumann, Wilder Pflanzenwuchs 2, 2019

Hartmut Neumann, Wilder Pflanzenwuchs 3, 2019

Associated exhibition

Hartmut Neumann. Overgrown and Disappeared

Dusseldorf / 13 April – 23 June 2018

It is a play of ideas, but it seems obvious that all the vegetation, with its trees, shrubs, plants, moss, flowers, fruit will flourish and recapture or at least overgrow all spaces. Neumann pres...

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