Herbert Hinteregger -- Untitled (Kunstschnee)

In his new site-specific installation for Georg Kargl BOX Herbert Hinteregger presents a choreographic exploration of geometric abstract painting’s visual language and materiality. The six paintings comprising the installation hang in a disparate constellation on the walls continuing his investigation on the relation between painting, space and the viewer. Inspired for this solo presentation by Hans Richter’s direct animation Rhythm 21 (1921), in which simple white squares and rectangles gambol rhythmically on a black ground, the works in the BOX indeed seem to be dancing. The black wall color—which amplifies the whiteness, gridding, layering, and subtle pastels of the paintings—is a dense chromatic made up of the mixing of different tones-and-tints.

In many installations over the years Herbert Hinteregger has turned his paintings from their typical wall-bound vertical position—and installed them horizontally on a low plinth or on the floor: so they take on a sculptural presence. In the BOX, the sculptural is relative to the space, itself, as the paintings and walls interrelate and play off each other: creating a sense of gestalt. And the architectonics and angles of the room are played out in the geometric figuration within the paintings.

Looking closely at Hinteregger’s whites in the new paintings will reveal their subtle nuances; the blue that appears is ballpoint pen ink that has been delicately softened and given an evanescent quality reminiscent of a snowy landscape. Hinteregger has used ballpoint pens as sculptural objects in a well-known series of works. The elegant combination of these elements deployed with a honed conceptual relationship—to his earlier work, to the materiality of painting, and the exposition spac —makes Untitled (Kunstschnee) an adventure in new insights and associations.