martin c. herbst
1965, AT
in colaboration wit Huberty & Breyne

Martin C. Herbst pushes the limits of traditional painting. Most of his delicately executed paintings expand to the third dimension without denying their
two-dimensional origin. His artistic career has been shaped by his lifelong interest in the human face and figure and by the question how to transform a portrait of a certain individual into a transpersonal and touching artwork. He understands (portrait) painting as a search for universal validity that is somehow larger than life.
In the spheres series faces appear on one half of mirror-polished spheres and look like mysterious moonfaces. The artist uses highly polished stainless steel spheres and paints a distorted face on one half. The other half of the sphere remains unpainted and functions as a powerful distorting mirror.
This series is inspired by a famous painting of the Italian Mannerism, Parmigianino’s Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror.





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