Matthias Weischer

Matthias Weischer's paintings depict interior scenes that challenge the viewer’s perception of space. One of the foremost painters of his generation, Weischer has refined his technique by repeatedly crafting and restaging compositions, often drawing from his own studio as a point of departure.

In these new works, Weischer’s enigmatic interiors suggest a fleeting human presence. Each room captures a moment suspended in time; the sparse furniture and signs of disrepair evoke a sense of vacuity and abandonment.

A keen interest in the interior depictions of both the Italian Renaissance and the Dutch masters of the 17th century informs these environments. In one painting, a male figure perches on the edge of a low stool, seen to be writing or studying from a book in her lap. Encroaching from behind, from the edge of the canvas, are the meandering variegated leaves of a tall plant, and on the wall hang other pictures, objects that reoccur variously in his work. Sometimes they are snatches of geometric patterns or illustrations, other times reproductions of Renaissance or Byzantine scenes.

Weischer is known for his use of many layers of oil paint, built up over time to create a thick, rich surface texture. More recently he has begun to also use egg tempera, its flatness and lightness offering a resemblance to the plaster surface of fresco, coupled with a palette of warm, pastel tones, again evocative of the history of Italian painting. His surfaces bear witness to his laboured process of working and reworking the canvas, both in oil and tempera. Often, there are areas that have been sanded back or scraped with a blade before being repainted, suggesting a form of entropy that has taken place upon the canvas. This gives rise to a similar sense of time passing, present too, within the environments depicted.

Perspective is then manipulated with different objects within a scene, subject to divergent horizon lines and vanishing points. This adds to a sense of the uncanny, heightened by the aforementioned recurring presence of paintings within the depicted spaces, resulting in a disorienting layering of dimensions.

As part of his process, the artist often stages environments within his studio, which he then works from, carefully composing each element in both real life and then across the painterly surface. These appear like abandoned stages, where the final act of a play has taken place before everyone has left the stage. Objects within these stages function simultaneously as props, signifiers and characters; they take possession of the space while also creating tension within the composition. Indeed, while these objects circulate his compositions with a theatricality to their presence, the core of his practice lends itself to the delicate balance between emptiness and detail.