Eye of Art #19 : Thomas Scheibitz

heroldius (65)in #art • 5 years ago

Another perfect combination, an artist playing with cars. The German artist Thomas Scheibitz presented last month his art car BMW i8. He transformed the personal car of this friend Bernd Heusinger, director of the communication agency Hirschen, in an automobile sculpture experimenting with form and colour.

WHO

Born 1968 in Saxony (Germany), Thomas Scheibitz is a famous artist known for his brightly coloured paintings and sculptures. He studied at the Dresden Art Academy.

He had quickly international recognition with his works exposed all around the world :
Tate, London
MoMa, New-York
National Galleries, Edinburgh
...

His "work [...] continues to violate the borders between abstraction and representation, painting and sculpture, art and other visual culture. His sculptures resemble architectural models or fragments of logos; his paintings are vaguely figurative." - Roberta Smith, Art in Review, 2006 (New-York Times)

Here is an overview of his painted work (pics from his website) :

Portrait K.S., 2019

Apfel, 2017

WHAT

This work wasn't commissioned by BMW for its famous Art Car series. It was only an independent experiment in form and colour with his friend's car. He explained his creative processus :

“Radical content is a question of form. Traditional sculptural concerns such as visual perspectives, detailed imagery, spatial perspectives, qualities of reliefs, symmetry as well as dissolved symmetry and illusion were the starting points for my design of a body of a modern vehicle.” - Thomas Scheibitz (BMW Press Release)

The motifs adorning the BMW i8 play on the contrasts in order to give relief with a left side left almost black and white and the other side very colorful. I like that but on someone else's car :-).