Matthias Weischer

Painted during his study at the renowned Academy of Visual Arts of Leipzig, from which he graduated in 2003, Gelbes Zimmer documents one of Matthias Weischer's earliest successes in developing a painterly and iconographic dialect, which has subsequently become synonymous with his zeitgeist oeuvre. His meteoric professional ascent has been built on defining psychological landscape through the atmospheric possibilities of vacant spaces. This work stands as the foundation of his subsequent success, which has included winning the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2004, consequently being mentored by David Hockney, and, like Neo Rauch before him, being awarded the Leipziger Volkszeitung Art Prize in 2005. As the present work demonstrates so remarkably, Weischer's paintings persistently explore the identities of space through the construction and de-construction of imagined domestic interiors.

Built up with layers of paint, the mood of this space is heavily pregnant with both anticipation and history. Through the absolute human absence, the room itself assumes a type of figural presence and a highly portentous personality. The cryptic painting of some tropical cove in the ornate frame on the table compositionally competes with the geometric orange planks concurrently lying on and hovering above the floor, neither element affording a clear literal reading of this painting. Any clue to narrative is ultimately intangible and the secret held in this enclosed space is tightly preserved. Weischer's composite skill is in balancing the rendition of a perspectival space and creating a scene heavy with atmosphere, whilst at the same time manifestly revealing the methods of its manufacture. The fabrication of the painted surface is easily read through the well-worked layers of pigment, and seemingly random splashes and daubs of bright blue paint running down across the foreground further alert us to the essential tactility intrinsic to the painting process. Between this residual shadow of manufacture and the highly composed iconography, Gelbes Zimmer - the 'yellow room' - juxtaposes interiorised claustrophobia with the inspirational dream of the painted tropical beach. Thus the room itself assumes psychological dynamism, and the beholder, as potential occupant, is forced to confront the potentiality of absence and the evasive Other.