For centuries, artists have sought to create the suggestion of movement in their paintings. The vertiginous combinations of natural and artificial elements used by German artist David Schnell (b. Bergisch Gladbach, 1971) produce the desired illusion of both speed and depth. Most of Schnell’s paintings feature an extremely central vanishing point and a complete absence of narrative element or event. Trained at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, Schnell belongs to the same generation of successful painters as Matthias Weischer. Often called the Neue Leipziger Schule, this group of artists is well-known for its mastery both of the craft aspects of painting and of a range of graphic techniques. This summer, the GEM is mounting a major solo exhibition in honour of this highly talented artist.

Schnell’s work is based on the artist’s own memories. He loves to wander around areas once dominated by nature but now under human control – places deliberately planned and laid out by man, like the grounds of stately mansions, or industrial areas where new recreational or play areas are being created. Since his work draws directly on his memories of such places, without reference to photographs or other records, elements taken from nature and from civilisation mingle freely on his canvases. His use of colour is so extreme and intense that the worlds he creates often resemble the virtual reality of computer games or science fiction films.

Although thoroughly contemporary, Schnell’s work is rooted in the long tradition of perspective-based landscape painting. His most recent work, for example, displays similarities to Impressionist paintings, most particularly to Claude Monet’s water lily pictures. Like Monet, Schnell strews his paintings with fleeting, transparent patches of colour which eventually produce the optical illusion of a landscape. Elements of landscape and architecture combine in his pictures to breach the bounds of traditional artistic genres. The landscape elements may look romantic, but they are sharply offset by the speed and aggression of the ‘alien’ elements.

Like a number of other successful GEM exhibitions (including the Matthias Weischer and Léopold Rabus retrospectives), Stunde is a product of cooperation with the Kunstverein Hannover and the Museum Zu Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen. The largest version of the show will be the one on exhibition at the GEM: in addition to three large galleries of paintings, it will include a series of smaller exhibition areas featuring a selection of screen prints and lino cuts never previously on public display. There will also be a vast temporary mural, produced by Schnell on-site in the days immediately prior to the opening.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue published in cooperation with Hatje Cantz (price: €24.95).

David Schnell has produced a special limited edition of 35 prints to be sold exclusively during the exhibition at the GEM at a price of € 580 (unframed).