Schwarz, Reiner (*1940), The Hunchback, 1969

Reiner Schwarz(*1940 Hirschberg), The Hunchback , 1969. Lithograph, 33 cm x 22 (depiction), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]69”, identified as copy no. 66/80 lower left and inscribed “Die Bucklige” in the center.

- with scattered stains in the right margin, otherwise in excellent condition

- Strange beauty -

The hunchback not only has a hump protruding from the straight back of the chair, but her whole body consists of hump-like bulges. However, she does not look ugly, just strange, which is emphasized by her reptilian golden-brown coat. There is an air of mystery about her that is reflected in her hands, which seem to be joined together, but most of all in the expression of her head, which is tilted forward. She seems to be listening inwardly to something that fills her completely. This inner fullness is the source of the hunchback's strange beauty, which is not satirized but rather enhanced by the pink glove and chair cover.

About the artist

After being expelled from Hirschberg in Silesia, Reiner Schwarz spent his youth in Hannover. In 1960 he began studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Mac Zimmermann and produced his first lithographs. In 1962 he made study trips to Florence and Venice, and in 1965 to Rome. He was particularly fascinated by Italian art, Sienese painting, and Mannerism. His first solo exhibition at the Galerie Schnoor in Bremen in 1964 was the beginning of more than 150 exhibitions in Germany and abroad.

In 1974 Reiner Schwarz established a print studio in Berlin, where he perfected the technique of lithography, using up to 17 colors on various tone papers. In 1987, his artistic encounter with Rolf Münzer and Peter Schnürpel at the Kätelhön print studio inspired him to explore the world of "abandoned and lonely" everyday objects as melancholy traces of memory instead of people. Initially, he used large-format wrapping paper from the GDR. In 1990 Schwarz became a member of the Künstlersonderbund in Germany.

Galerie Brusberg, which represented the artist for more than 20 years, published a catalogue raisonné of Reiner Schwarz's lithographs in 1984.

"He does not want to be just a draughtsman, but an interpreter, a reinterpreter, a metaphorist who creates mutants and thus visualizes the invisible, the known and the seemingly banal that is about to be transformed into eternity; the brief moment of an all too fleeting present, nature next to nature, reality next to reality. It is therefore a subversive realism that questions our everyday thinking, that refuses to grasp things quickly by means of exaggerated precision, that thwarts cognition, denatures the world and melts it into a pictorial puzzle [...]".

Edwin Kratschmer