Rost (Rust)

Visual Description

At the center of the square painting, an old man looks straight at the viewer. His brows are drawn together, the corners of his mouth turned down. A short, light beard covers chin and upper lip. Hair and forehead dissolve upward into brushstrokes.

The face is painted in gray and white, clearly outlined and sculptural. Around it lies a ground of brown, ocher, rust red and black, partly in vertical bands. Pink and orange appear at the upper right. Several thin, glowing yellow-green lines run vertically and diagonally across the surface, some of them as drips.

Artistic Interpretation

“Rost” (Rust) links the image of old age with a material that makes time visible. Rust forms slowly, through weather and duration. Like the surface of metal, the face changes too. The man’s stern gaze seems alert, almost searching.

The yellow-green lines set a counterpoint. They feel fresh and present and cut across the image of decay. Hübner thus shows old age not as standstill but as a state in which toughness and vitality coexist. Viewers encounter a counterpart who does not withdraw.

Art-Historical Context

The shift between precise facial painting and an informal ground points to German postwar painting, in which materiality and gesture gained expressive value of their own. At the same time, the work belongs to the tradition of the expressive character head. Hübner joins these lines with fluorescent paint in a contemporary visual language.

Exclusivity

“Rost” is a unique work in acrylic on aluminum, 50 × 50 cm, including a floater frame, painted in July 2026. The aluminum support fits the title and gives the painting a depth of its own. Fluorescent pigments react to UV light. Under black light, the yellow-green lines glow distinctly.

Collector Value

The work belongs to the group “Inner States” and forms a formal pair with “Leben in Farbe” (Life in Color): same format, same support, related theme. For collectors, this also opens up the possibility of hanging the two together.

More About the Artist

Matthias Hübner (b. 1976) combines high-contrast figuration with intense color and an open, psychologically charged visual language in modern surrealistic realism. People, emotions and different levels of perception are at the center of his work. Since returning to painting in 2020, he has continued to develop his artistic position experimentally.

Early awards at the GDR youth painting competition in 1989 and the European painting competition in 1993, along with international recognition in recent years, mark his artistic development.

Condition Report

Very good condition; no visible defects. A detailed condition report is available on request.