Herbert Brandl

Herbert Brandl
Born(1959-01-17)17 January 1959
Graz, Austria
Died27 July 2025(2025-07-27) (aged 66)
Vienna, Austria
Occupations
  • Artist
  • Academic teacher
Organizations
AwardsGrand Austrian State Prize

Herbert Brandl (17 January 1959 – 27 July 2025) was an Austrian painter. He was part of the Junge Wilde trend, sticking to traditional media. His mostly large paintings in bright colours, abstract landscapes inspired by nature, became part of major collections such as the Albertina in Vienna, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. He represented Austria at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Life and career

Brandl was born in Graz[1] on 17 January 1959.[2] He studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 1978 with Herbert Tasquil and Peter Weibel.[1][2][3] Weibel taught experimental art forms but Brandl only wanted to paint.[3]

From the early 1980s, Herbert Brandl exhibited at the Peter Pakesch Gallery in Vienna.[2][4] From the mid-1980s, Brandl took part in international exhibitions, including the Biennale de Paris (1985), the São Paulo Biennale (1989),[1] at the Musée d'Art de la Ville de Paris (1990), Documenta 9 (1992)[1][3] and 'Painting on the Move' at the Kunsthalle Basel, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Basel (2002).[5] He represented Austria at the 2007 Biennale,[3] filling the Hoffmann Pavillon with his art, and one canvas was shown outside.[1][4] Three major exhibitions were dedicated to his works in 2020, at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna, the Kunsthaus Graz and the Künstlerhaus Graz (now Halle für Kunst Steiermark).[1][2] His works are part of major collections such as the Albertina in Vienna, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.[1]

Brandl taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1998[4] and was from 2004 to 2019 a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.[1]

Brandl lived and worked in Vienna, running a studio in an industrial park.[3] He died there from a heart attack on 27 July 2025, at the age of 66.[1][2][3]

Work

Brandl was part of the Junge Wilde trend, sticking to traditional media and reviving Expressionism[3] in opposition to a trend towards conceptual art, performances and installations.[6] Other artists include Erwin Bohatsch, Gunter Damisch, Alois Mosbacher and Hubert Schmalix.[6] Brandl's art is varied, including drawings and sculptures, with a focus on monumental paintings in bright colours that allude to landscapes such as mountain regions but can be seen as abstract. His approach to nature is not historic or romantic but addresses environmental problems.[7] He began to use a kind of action painting technique in the 1990s, restricting himself to a 20 minute time limit to complete a work.[8]

Brandl's interest in painting mountain landscapes arose after a visit to Switzerland in 2000.[9] While his paintings resemble the mountain ranges of the Himalayas and the Dolomites, his works are untitled and do not depict identifiable mountains. Instead, Brandl sought to pursue an investigation into the intrinsic quality of a mountain, dispensing with its name altogether. "The process of going from a blank canvas to a mountain on the canvas is perhaps, for me, like a simulated alpine experience", he explained.[9] One of his largest mountain paintings measures 9 × 4 metres (30 × 13 feet), and was painted in a rapid and spontaneous manner, taking him about 15 minutes to complete.[10] His style was influenced by Zen Buddhism, with its attention to simplicity and spontaneity. Brandl also had a passion for collecting Buddhist art.[10]

He also painted rivers, forests and animals, especially cats and hyenas, interested in "light, wind, fog, rocks or forests", trying not to depict them, like impressionists, but reacting to them in an "inner process".[1] Stella Rollig, the director of the Belvedere in Vienna when his art was exhibited in 2020, summarised it as "radically romantic" ("radikal romantisch").[3] His works show pure nature without people and their traces.[3]

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rustler, Katharina (28 July 2025). "Österreichischer Maler Herbert Brandl mit 66 Jahren gestorben". Der Standard (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Maler Herbert Brandl gestorben". ORF (in Austrian German). 28 July 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Schulz, Bernhard (29 July 2025). "Zum Tod des Malers Herbert Brandl / Romantik ohne Verklärung". Monopol (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  4. ^ a b c "Herbert Brandl". ESSL Museum (in Austrian German). Archived from the original on 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  5. ^ "Herbert Brandl". ArtFacts. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  6. ^ a b c Kniepeiss, Mathias (28 July 2025). "Herbert Brandl: Farbe im Blut und Lucky Luke im Herzen". Kleine Zeitung (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  7. ^ a b "Hohe Auszeichnung für Künstler Herbert Brandl". steiermark (in Austrian German). 6 March 2024. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  8. ^ Steininger, Florian (2012). "HB im KHM oder Die vergessenen Bilder". In Brugger, Ingried; Steininger, Florian (eds.). Herbert Brandl. Hatje Cantz. pp. 27–28. ISBN 9783775732802. OCLC 780937356. As cited in Biela, Andrea (2016). "Herbert Brandl - Malerei im Kontext von Natur und Abstraktion". (MA thesis). University of Graz. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Herber Brandl: Think Big" (PDF). Vienna Künstlerhaus. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  10. ^ a b Spiegler, Almuth (24 March 2012). "Herbert Brandl: Im Rausch der Geschwindigkeit". Die Presse. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
    • Ruble, Casey (March 2003). "Uncommon Denominator: New Art from Vienna". ARTNews. p. 129. Herbert Brandl's impressive Richteresque series of oil-on-canvas mountainscapes are massive in scale and impact. With broad swaths of impasto, gestural brushwork, thin washes, and drips, the canvases verge on abstraction.
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