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Thomas Scheibitz

German, born 1968

© 1999 Thomas Scheibitz, Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Kindergrab (No.243), 1999

Oil on canvas
86 x 58 inches (218.4 x 147.3 cm)
Sherman S. Jewett Fund, 2000

Thomas Scheibitz, a German artist born in Radeberg in 1968, lives and works in Berlin. Part of a group of emerging new talent in Germany, Scheibitz's paintings have a distinctly post-cubist orientation. His puzzle-like forms are carefully composed in tightly connected compositions locked into shallow space. The forms he uses suggest fragmentary landscape and architectural elements, at once recognizable and abstract. Coupled with his unique sense of color, Scheibitz's paintings have been described as a cross between "expressionism and Japanese cartoons."

In this painting, organic, plant-like shapes coalesce in the center of the picture where a cross-like form dominates. Perhaps this shape reflects the child’s grave referred to in the title. (The English translation of Kindergrab is Children's Grave.) The quirky colors that Scheibitz uses in his painting are at odds with the solemnity of the subject suggested in the title.

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