Max Uhlig

Baumreihe – dunkel, 2012

The artwork of Max Uhlig is founded upon the subtle and variable qualities of his lines. This artist liberates the line from representational functions of any kind. At the same time, however, his lines, with their pronounced actional character, do not move in the direction of random art, of unbridled Tachism. They retain a link to the form character of the subject matter. Taken together, line and form provide the basis for his art. They are his instruments, providing the dramatic elements in his visual language, and allowing him to construct charged polarities, to concentrate them and, finally, to deliver them to the viewer. In addition to the seeking out and implementation of rhythmic tensions, Max Uhlig’s painted and graphical art is significantly shaped by these tough and exacting form-finding processes. He spends months – frequently, even years – rendering a subject such as a treetop in a specific topographical context in a number of different classical art media (chalk drawings, graphic art, watercolors, paintings) in order to penetrate to the elementary structures, with the aim of refining out the ultimately valid form. The form-finding process can be traced over a period of 20 years – as is demonstrated by the artworks Grosse Buschformation, bewegt [Large bush formation, in motion], from 1993, and Baumreihe – dunkel [Row of trees – dark], from 2012.