(born in Graz in 1959)
Untitled, on the reverse signed, dated Brandl 2005, oil on canvas, 150 x 190 cm, on metal stretcher

Provenance:
Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck (label on the reverse)
Private Collection, Germany

His artistic activity is oriented around a preexisting image, either an industrially produced illustration, his own photograph, or based on a memory or idea. The purpose of Brandl’s painting is to make this image recognizable, not to process it, sublate it, or turn it into painting. Making it recognizable means preserving and intensifying the distance of the things and places that he needs to keep his desire for the realization of closeness alive. Brandl paints into this image, loading it with masses of paint; he gives it weight and, with that weight, closeness. Only through this activity does the image become visible, but it is not something that was actually produced by the painting; it was already there before it was painted. In fact, one practical indication of this preexistence of the image is how little time Brandl needs to paint it. He needs more time to think up this image, to establish it before it is painted, and he also refers to many other paintings that precede each new one. Brandl is a painter who always paints yet another painting. Because the image comes before the painting, the painting is never finished with any image.
Ulrich Look aus: Nähe/Ferne, catalogue: Herbert Brandl, Deichtorhallen, 2009