(born in Graz in 1959)
Untitled, on the reverse monogrammed, dated HB 84, also on the reverse “Der Gedanke an DHD versüsst einem den Genuss des Momentes” [The sheer thought of DHD makes enjoying the moment sweeter], oil on canvas, 84 x 150 x 6 cm, stretched on wooden frame, (K)

Exhibited and reproduced in colour in the catalogue:
Herbert Brandl, Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum, 15.6-25.8.2002, page 48 – there reproduced in upright format

Provenance:
Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman (label on the reverse); Private Collection, Austria

... Peter Nesweda once wrote that “Brandl is looking for a lost paradise.” Absolute rubbish. Peter Pakesch always said that to me, too. Even Harald Szeemann suggested in one of his texts that I painted atmospheres.
That is simply not true – I am not an expressionist; I do not give my feelings free rein. Personally, I am just an observer of my paintings, albeit one with the right to interfere in them. I have only ever wanted to get involved with what I see, with the visual. The mineralogical details interested me much more. I have never been able to say exactly what I am putting across with my images. I was only able to inch up them like on a cliff face. … People might see chasms, bodies of water, cliffs or refractions of light in your images. But there are never any mountain peaks. Yes, to date I have always trimmed off mountain peaks. Once, in 1983, I wanted to show an arch after a series of valleys – still not a mountain peak, but even that did not work out. It became a horribly stiff image. Then I realised that I was simply not interested in the Messner feeling, the sense of being alone on the top of a peak. The wind that blows up there also blows within me. In any case, a ravine is also a peak.
Wolfgang Kos in conversation with Herbert Brandl from: Alpenblick – Die zeitgenössische Kunst und das Alpine,
Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna 1997