Herbert Brandl studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Herbert Tasquil and Peter Weibel. From 2004 to 2019, Brandl taught at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Herbert Brandl’s works are characterized by an impressive presence, originality, and powerful use of color. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, his paintings range from mountains, rivers, forests, and hyenas to airy, abstract compositions with luminous colors. When Herbert Brandl brings nature’s atmospheric qualities into his pictures, painting and nature touch in moments of light, movement, perpetuating energy, and time. Even in his most abstract compositions, we imagine the sun breaking through the clouds, streams flowing, or leaves and meadows showing off their green.
Brandl’s pictures are located at that point where the idea of a natural object and the emotionality of color fields become one. He works with the physical conditions of color, creating “unintentional,” fresh pictures. His painting method is brisk, intuitive, and devoid of purposeful notions, and he “concentrates like a Zen painter“ (Herbert Brandl). His finished works possess a striking spatiality and atmosphere, also in terms of light. They are compact, visual events of great painterly freedom as well as visionary pictures with an imaginary depth.
Herbert Brandl represented Austria in 2007 at the Venice Biennale. He took part at the documenta IX in Kassel in 1992 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1989.
Selected solo exhibtions: Belvedere 21, Vienna (2020); Kunsthaus Graz (2020); Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2020); Haus der Kunst St. Josef, Solothurn (2016); Osthaus Museum Hagen (2016); Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna (2012); Albertina, Vienna (2010); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2009); Kunsthalle Basel (1999); Secession, Vienna (1998); Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1994); Kunsthalle Bern (1991); Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent (1991); Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (1984).
Selected museum collections: Albertina, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Museu Serralves, Porto; mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Renaissance Society, Chicago; Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz.
