Paintings by Hartmut Neumann
Born in 1954 in Delmenhorst, Hartmut Neumann is a German surrealist painter, sculptor and photographer. He studied painting and graphics at the University of Arts in Bremen under painter and sculptor Rolf Thiele from 1976 to 1980. In 1983 Neumann received a Scholarship Cité des Arts in Paris. Since 1992 he has been a professor at the University of Fine Arts Braunschweig.
Hartmut Neumann’s works, with their bright colors and dark backgrounds, construct a world of their own. They take the viewer into micro- and macrocosms, which initially seem untouched and harmonious, but on closer inspection reveal sinister abysses. In his pictorial language, elements of the real, the unconscious, mythology, and chance collide to create an unsettling symbiosis.
Neumann’s view of nature is at turns abstract, sculptural, utopian, or staged. The inexhaustible abundance of his formal repertoire is based on the idea of the “wunderkammer”, where artificial and natural are closely entwined. His enigmatic pictorial sealed places are characterised by opulence and richness of detail. What makes Hartmut Neumann unique in his contemporary landscapes is the way his work reveals the artificiality of nature, as contrived by the artist.
Hartmut Neumann is a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, the German Association of Artists, and was a member of the board from 2000 to 2002. He lives in Cologne and Brunswick.
Insert Image: Hartmut Neumann, “Nachtsträufse (Luftwurzeln)”, 2022, Oil on Canvas 60 x 50 cm, Private Collection