Max Uhlig

Bewegte Baumkronenreihe [Row of treetops in motion], 2011/2012

After training in graphic drawing in the early 1950s, Max Uhlig initially worked as a calligrapher at the Technische Universität in Dresden. From 1955 to 1960, he studied with Hans Theo Richter and Max Schwimmer at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden. His artwork developed partly out of his interest in the great sculptors/graphic artists of the 20th century, such as Henry Moor, Marino Marini and Alberto Giacometti, and partly out of his intensive studies of Asian ink painting. Bewegte Baumkronenreihe [Row of treetops in motion], 2011/12, is part of a cycle of landscape images embarked upon by Uhlig circa 1970. It is a fine example of the intensive process that Uhlig engages in in order to find the correct form. Uhlig contains the upper line of the treetops in an expressively mobile curved outline, interpreting it in, as it were, a spatial, sculptural and three-dimensional way. Lower down, the lines and forms dissolve into an outspread, script-like language of signs. In parallel, if one starts from the bottom and reads the picture upward, the degree of motion increases: both for the imaginary natural forms and for the abstract/linear brushstrokes. The choice of extremely absorbent Büttenpapier paper as the medium for this picture (Max Uhlig constantly experiments with the properties of different paper types) serves to additionally emphasize the physical and spatial qualities of his nature-inspired subject matter.