Missing – Series (4 Works)

Visual Description

“Missing” is a four-part series of smaller formats, each framed in black. Every panel shows a single object painted in black, white and gray on a light, almost white ground: a cassette recorder with its tape door open in front of a window frame, a worn canvas sneaker with loose laces, a pair of headphones with a torn cable, and a cherry with water droplets hanging beside a leaf.

Behind each object, color explodes: spatters, swipes and streaks of fluorescent yellow, orange and pink. The objects are painted with precision and volume, while the color around them is free and gestural. All four panels follow the same order and form a coherent whole.

Artistic Interpretation

The title sets the reading. The objects are everyday things that hold memories: music on tape, a pair of shoes, headphones, the taste of a summer. They stand for moments, people or phases of life that are missing or gone. The people themselves are not in the picture.

The torn cable, the untied laces and the open window suggest interruption and departure. The luminous color, by contrast, reads as the intensity of memory, outshining the gray of the things themselves.

Art-Historical Context

The series draws on the tradition of still life, in which objects stand for time and transience; the cherry is a classic motif of vanitas painting. By choosing objects from consumer and pop culture, it also follows in the wake of Pop Art. Hübner combines both with his black-and-white painting and fluorescent color.

Exclusivity

“Missing” consists of four unique works in acrylic on painting board, each 52 × 42 cm and framed in black. All four are painted with UV-reactive paint; under black light the neon spatters emerge as a separate pictorial layer.

The works are sold only as a set. The series belongs to the group “Identity and the Present.”

Collector Value

As a four-part series, “Missing” can be hung in a row, in a square or as a cluster, and suits hallways, studies, lounges or hospitality spaces. The frames make the works ready to hang.

A complete series offers collectors a focused body of work that reaches beyond the single image.

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.