Martin Scholz

The paintings of Martin Scholz are representational in origin. They contain forms and fragments of heads, plants, stones and architectural elements and create a connection to the known visible world. However, at the same time, the paintings distance themselves from the familiar world, and create their own pictorial space that functions according to its own natural laws. The paintings transform and translate “known” elements, and as such they create new relationships and develop multi-layered intellectual references to men and women, nature, life and transience. His pictorial themes include the recurring motif of the head, reflections, shadow shapes and the division of the painting into a definite top and bottom half. At times, the two juxtaposed halves of his paintings stand in extreme contrast to each other and so energise the entire painting through this contrast. Separation, connection, demarcation, intimacy and distance all play decisive roles, in the figurative sense, in our perception of these paintings.