Markus Huemer: Without bats, there would be no tequila

“Without bats, there would be no tequila” is the title of Markus Huemer’s exhibition at Galerie Suppan. What sounds like a joke is actually a verifiable fact. Small Mexican nectar bats pollinate the agave plant from which tequila is made, a process essential to the reproduction of this plant species; without it, it wouldn’t be possible to serve countless shots of this popular bar drink. Huemer uses statements or legal texts as titles for all his paintings—phrases that may initially seem nonsensical but actually have a legitimate context.

Regardless of the titles, the exhibition presents paintings of dried cut flowers, which in reality resemble the beige, unprimed canvas they are painted on. Dead plants, then, to which the artist gives a specific coloration. The size of the 17 canvases on view ranges from 30 x 24 cm to 280 x 210 cm. By refusing to use color, Huemer ties in with his earlier works in the grisaille style, which follow a black-and-white mode. Characteristic again is the linear preliminary drawing, which must be considered Huemer’s trademark. Whether using felt-tip pen or pencil, the outlines of the depicted objects and subjects are partially made visible in all his paintings. Through this reduction and refusal to show a real-life model, an artificial image or reproduction emerges as a painterly gesture on the canvas.

Gestures of emptiness alternate with gestures of abundance. While the untreated canvas serves as the backdrop of the debate, some flower heads are applied with thick, pasty brushstrokes laid down in circular motions, bringing the tactile quality of the paint into play. The colors themselves turn out to be misleading. The artificial coloring of the paint has nothing to do with reality—when, for instance, the yellow of a sunflower extends down into its stem. The frequently used black also shows no grounding in reality; it merely signifies the already occurred death of the depicted plants and is combined with other colors, for example in a branch-like structure paired with pink, which resembles a figure with legs and is titled: “A Dog Is Any Four-Legged Animal of the Genus Canis That Barks.”

Walter Seidl