Hinrich JW Schüler – „no man’s land“

"no man's land" – no man's land and nobody's land – are imaginary, deserted, primeval landscapes that appear as if crystallized out of nowhere, temporarily materialized into a fleeting, ephemeral appearance, only to immediately dissolve into space again. These new works are dominated by light-filled spatiality, the silence of a barren expanse, the dynamics of form, and exciting interplays of stillness and movement.

First, basic compositional arrangements are roughly generated with pastose paint scraped by palette knife. Then the resulting landscapes are covered with multiple translucent, finely nuanced colour layers of glaze, and provided with details that fit naturally into the overall composition. One of the new features of these works is that they are created on heavy, high-quality paper which was originally developed for pastel painting. Its matt and velvety surface absorbs the paint applications of impasto and translucent acrylic paint in a very special way and thus contributes significantly to the spherical impression and expression of the works.

Compositionally and technically, "no man's land" is a further development of my work series „Abstract Landscapes“. The recent paintings however express a new clarity and an expanded thematic dimension in terms of content and atmosphere.

The "no man's land" painitngs are symbols of an awareness of the existential loneliness of man being thrown into limitless freedom, called to individuation, to self-development, which, given this very freedom without an a priori divine plan of salvation, can implement up to self-destruction.

In view of the present possibility of collective social and ecological self-extinction, the imaginary memory of ideal conditions and the longing for unencumbered forms of existence arise in many people – in an untouched land that is free of all imprintings, of stories and history, a country that does not (yet) belong to anyone.

Any moralities nevertheless are not intended to be transported in these works, in favor of artistic aesthetics. Neither is the aim a naïve search for harmony in the sense of romanticizing "ideal landscapes". On the contrary: these works are composed of various tensions and draw their energy from them. Nevertheless, they reflect longings for unspoiled, unruined (environmental) worlds that can only exist in art.

Biographically, the creation of the new series falls into a time of upheaval and an inventory check of different aspects of life. Cleared and reassessed in a way, in a new environment and grounded on many years of grown and practiced artistic experience, it feels as if it arises from a natural evolution in my art.

Surprisingly, "no man's land" corresponds even more to the voices and reviews of my earlier works. It seems as if this development follows a mysterious prescribed path, a natural-obligatory line.

"Hinrich JW Schueler's pictures convey the impression of a boundless, often cosmic-looking space, whose vastness is beautiful and inaccessible at the same time. The open pictorial spaces, reduced to the essentials, show a wide range of barrenness and abundance, penetrations and contrasts, they are spaces full of light, color and expansiveness." (Egbert Wellmann, writer and painter, 2011)

"The pre-existence of Hinrich JW Schueler's landscapes is fascinating, reminiscent of earlier stages of reality, as if the landscapes were just about to enter reality. The viewer then completes this process: accompanied by visionary feelings, the landscape arises in his head, and he thinks he has seen something like this before.
(Volker Kuhnert, painter and gallery owner, gallery ART FORUM Oldenburg, 2011)

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Text: Hinrich Schüler (content)
Silke Tobaben (form and design)

Düsseldorf und Harsefeld, Juni 2024