Thomas Huber

Thomas Huber (born 14 July 1955, in Zurich) is a Swiss artist who lived and worked in Mettmann near Düsseldorf for several years and is currently resident in Berlin.

From 1977 to 1978 Huber studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel with Franz Fedier, in 1979 at the Royal College of Art, London, and from 1980 to 1983 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (as a master student of Fritz Schwegler).

From 1992 to 1999 he was professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig and in 1992 interim director of the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

Between 2000 and 2002 Huber was chairman of the Deutscher Künstlerbund (German Artists Association).

Together with Bogomir Ecker, he initiated and realised the "Künstlermuseum" in 2001, the reconfiguration of the Museum Kunstpalast's collection in Düsseldorf.

He has received numerous awards, including the Meret Oppenheim Prize in 2013, the Zurich Arts Society Prize, and the Preis für Junge Schweizer Kunst der Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft (in 1993).

Thomas Huber is an artist who fuses image and text and lectures on his pictures.

He realises his conception of the image in various mediums: paintings, aquarelle, drawings, objects, graphic arts, art within architecture, artist lectures, and artists books.

For instance, his painting Rede in der Schule ("Lecture in the School") depicts the main auditorium in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Rather than showing realities in his work, Huber, like an architect, interweaves the picture space with design structures and allows motifs such as diamonds and squares to become a determining element of the work.

Accompanying philosophical and poetic texts demonstrate that the picture space is seen as "a meaning space and the picture depth as profundity".

The artist says about his work: "My pictures show spaces. You can see them but you can't get to them; it is as if they are sealed behind clear glass. The picture is a promise that cannot be honoured, it is a wistful, sad thing."

Thomas Huber's painting reveals an ironic and imaginary world.

His work stages a complex process of symbolisation that resorts to sophisticated techniques of representation: systematic mise en abîme, co-presence of different temporalities or apparently contradictory elements, in illusionist spaces, between classical and utopian architecture.

His work fundamentally questions the possibility of representation.

His paintings both suck in and exclude the viewer.

The painting marks the place of encounter between the painting's own appearance and the hidden depth of the image, the mise en abyme underlining its enigma.

For Thomas Huber, the painting is also a "social" place, the place of encounter with the viewer.

If the artist is indeed the creator of the image, he also becomes its guardian.

Faced with the catastrophic reflections reflected by the world, the artist, in his work, will never cease to account for them but also, illusorily, to try to tidy up the mess and to attempt to repair the visible damage.

Thomas Huber is known for his almost unreal architectures, his mise en abîme, his dream-like inner world.

But like many artists, he has always observed the world and been inspired by reality.

He has always drawn and painted watercolours from observation.

From his village studio in Italy, he has a magnificent view of Lake Maggiore, the Swiss mountains to the north and the Italian mountains to the south.

Literally fascinated by the landscape, the lake, the mountains, by the effects of light, by the colours of the seasons and the depth and majesty of the spaces, he developed a kind of diary: every day, in the morning, at noon or in the evening, he draws and paints what he sees.

He paints "reality" but through the filter of his emotions and feelings.

This series of works is a tribute to the beauty and simplicity of landscapes, it is an invitation to observation, meditation, elevation of the spirit and a form of humility and respect in the face of the majesty of Nature.

A monographic exhibition dedicated to Lake Maggiore was held in MASI Lugano in 2023–2024.

The Red Frieze (2013–2014), You Are Here (2012), sad facets (2005–2007), Cabinet of Paintings (2004), Theoretical Paintings I and II (2001–2003; 2010–2011), The Peal of the Bells (1999–2000), The Bank (1991–1993), The Library (1988), The Picture Storeroom/Opus (1988), Wedding (1985–1986), The Visit in the Studio (1984), Talk in the School (1983), Talk on Creation (1982), Talk on the Great Flood (1982).