(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

Exhibited and illustrated in colour in the catalogue:
Herbert Brandl, Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum,15.6–25.8.2002, p. 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. 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