Herbert Maier: Wer wir sind – Eine Visuelle Bibliothek

This is "The Visual Library"

Herbert Maier's fascinating project is a successful attempt to think globally: it bears witness to the availability of images, the slowness of classical painting and the passion for travelling and collecting. The pictures with which Herbert Maier returns from all over the world are pictures that people have taken of themselves and others; they show human culture in all its facets, in its beauty and in its abysmal dimension. Faces, portraits, heads and masks - hardly any other motif has found its way into the history of art and culture on a global scale; behind every depiction of a person, however stylised or individually naturalistic it may be, lies the hope of capturing the quintessence of being human as such. Over many years, Herbert Maier has travelled to the most diverse places and regions, to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Mexico, Guatemala, the USA, Israel, Iran and the tribal areas of West Africa. His visual library is closely linked to these journeys. The encounters with other people and the inclusion of their artistic and cultural testimonies in his own imaginary image memory became just as important to him as the examination of Western art history. Herbert Maier has been working on this encyclopaedia since 2009, which now comprises over 500 watercolours. Only the watercolour technique, which is characterised by transparency and lightness, makes it possible to produce such a large number of pictures in such a short time.

Exhibition:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Freiburg, 29/10/2016 - 26/2/2017