HARTMUT NEUMANN

The works showcase his familiar, lush, and abundant plant world in a transformed appearance. Rather than the dense network of jungle plants—wildly growing, intricately intertwined, and merging into almost abstract ornamental patterns, all under the influence of cosmic threat—individual plants now take centre stage.

The plants appear as if they are actors on a stage against a chalk-white background, subtly hinting at a horizon. In their arrangement, the spectacle even evokes the landscape architecture of a tree nursery—albeit with very rare, surreal specimens.

This recent development follows Hartmut Neumann’s deep engagement with photography. Observations of fallen or withered trees, captured with his camera, serve as the foundation for initial sketches. From this pool of ideas, the artist develops his surreal plants, whose names he cleverly and humorously records in the titles of his works, much like entries in a botanical dictionary.

In recent years, sculptures have also emerged from the two-dimensional picture space. Using materials such as wood, plaster, and papier-mâché, Hartmut Neumann models sculptural plants, which he paints with floral ornamentation and lush green foliage from top to base.

The strikingly surreal plants in Hartmut Neumann’s visual world immediately draw the viewer into a fantastic realm. Some paintings even seem like a futuristic translation of Renaissance frescoes, such as the garden paintings on the walls of Palazzo Massimo in Rome. This impression is particularly pronounced in the artist’s large-scale paintings, so that in our exhibition, a connection between the exterior and the interior also takes shape.