Norbert Fleischmann

Norbert Fleischmann lives and works in Langenlois, Lower Austria. His involvement with painting could be described as encyclopaedic in a comprehensive sense. For it encompasses the most diverse styles and genres, motifs, painting styles and media influences, even forms of presentation and representation. The early key work Malmaterial from 1999 is grouped around Norbert Fleischmann’s more recent works, including the painting of a baroque hall of mirrors (Heat) or concrete painting refined with gold leaf and framed by a gilded frame (Rhodonite). The interior (tappeti e libri) seems to be based on a black-and-white photograph, the billowing ornament in iridescente on the digital materiality of a computer-generated image. Regardless of whether it is figurative or non-representational painting, old-masterly figuration or modern abstraction – there are probably only a few painters who can hold a candle to Norbert Fleischmann. But he does not celebrate painting as a “hero”, but rather makes the “myth” of painting the subject of his artistic work. (Ralf Christofori)