Beauty

Visual Description

“Beauty” shows a young woman with long, light hair looking directly at the viewer. She holds the index finger of her right hand horizontally beneath her nose like a mustache while twisting her mouth into a grimace. Her other fingers are spread, her arm in a black sleeve.

The figure is painted in black, white and gray, with fine highlights in the hair and eyes. Behind her runs a vertical stripe of vivid pink, with a further pink area opening on the right. Along the left edge, green brushstrokes add a fresh accent.

Artistic Interpretation

The title raises the expectation of an idealized portrait. Hübner undercuts it with a playful gesture. The young woman steps out of the pleasing image and claims the freedom to be funny, willful and direct.

This carries a quiet critique of beauty standards that are everywhere in advertising and social media. Beauty appears here not as surface but as self-determination and humor. The pink, the color of so many beauty campaigns, becomes an ironic frame.

Art-Historical Context

Deliberate self-staging and play with female roles have been central to contemporary art since Cindy Sherman’s photographic series. Hübner carries this approach into painting and combines it with the flat, saturated color of Pop Art.

Exclusivity

“Beauty” is a unique work in acrylic on canvas, 100 × 70 cm, completed in March 2025. It contains UV-reactive paint: under black light, the pink and green passages glow intensely and reframe the portrait.

Collector Value

The painting was exhibited at Galerie Tschart in Leipzig in 2025 and belongs to the work group “Identity and the Present.” It combines Hübner’s precise portraiture with a humorous, contemporary take on gender roles.

For collectors looking for a strong portrait with wit and clear use of color, “Beauty” is both accessible and layered, with a confident presence in homes, studios or agencies.

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.

Exhibitions and Awards

2025: Galerie Tschart, Leipzig, Germany