(born Radeberg near Dresden in 1968)
“GP 62” (hole), 2003, titled, signed and dated Scheibitz 03, vinyl, gouache, pigment marker on linenstructured, handmade paper, tacked onto backing cardboard, 213 x 157 cm, behind glass, framed, (PS)

Provenance:
Galerie Sprüth Magers, Berlin
Private Collection, Germany

“How can reality appear in pictures without being reduced to explicit (and thus open to instrumentalisation) or simply shallow messages?
And how can pictures have an impact if they don’t engross their viewers?” (p. 79)

Scheibitz always works with the same formats, varying only slightly depending on the composition, and reflecting human proportions and the golden mean. Firstly, Scheibitz prepares a sketch for the painting. This picks up on something he has previously discovered, a speck of reality, things and how they are perceived. For, as Schiebitz formulates it, one can only discover at the edges, in the ceaseless transformation of perceptions and images. Here his choice of theme is less significant than the many more formal correspondences and similarities that he translates, cuts out, isolates and layers.
He transfers this sketch onto textile paper using pigment markers, working the fluid vinyl colours into the design. The densely pigmented paints, based on natural ingredients, offer the advantage of having the same tonal values in both their liquid and dry state, thereby allowing the paintings to be immediately reflected upon and contrasted with others from the same cycle. An essential part of the working process involves daily examination and comparison of the effect as seen close up with other paintings. In his studio, the works Scheibitz is in the process of creating are placed close to one another. The almost identical formats lend a sense of calm, and allow the works to be compared, whilst simultaneously revealing the individuality of each painting. Finally, all the works on textile paper (GP) are presented framed behind glass.
The image is embedded in variations of blue. Cut through by white surfaces, suggesting openings of light, it forms a crystalline image before the eyes, with areas in shades of white and light grey. Thanks to their contours, these areas appear to lift away from one another, at the same time defined by the crossed lines stretching across the centre. The structure appears to float above the blue background, remaining puzzling and out of reach. The title “Hole” suggests that the artist has placed the structure in the centre of the picture in order to indicate that something is missing. It reminds one of things which cannot be portrayed and which even elude one’s own interpretation.
(Beate Söntgen Schichtungen. Zur Malerei von Thomas Scheibitz, in: Thomas Scheibitz: One Time Pad, Frankfurt 2012, p. 77ff)