Religion

Visual Description

The painting shows the face of a woman whose head and shoulders are wrapped in a wide, folded cloth. Face and fabric are painted in grays, whites and blacks. Her gaze is serious and directed straight ahead. The background is black.

The image is divided into vertical and horizontal strips that are slightly offset against one another. This creates breaks running across both face and fabric. Lines and patches of neon pink, yellow and cyan, some drawn with acrylic marker, lie over the eyes and edges. They read like marks added to the image afterward.

Artistic Interpretation

The title names a large subject, but the painting remains open. Hübner does not assign the veil to any particular religion. He shows a person whose image can no longer be assembled as a whole.

The shifted strips can be read as different perspectives: how a person sees herself, how others see her and what role faith plays in this. The neon colors disrupt the calm black-and-white painting and bring in the present. Viewers are invited to put the fragments together themselves.

Art-Historical Context

Breaking the image into partial views recalls Cubism, which shows a subject from several angles at once. The offset strips also point to collage and to the aesthetics of digital glitches. Hübner combines these approaches with the classic form of the veiled female portrait.

Exclusivity

The work is a unique piece in acrylic and acrylic marker on canvas, measuring 70 × 50 cm and completed in March 2025. Hübner uses UV-reactive paint. Under black light, the neon lines come forward and change how the face is read.

Collector Value

“Religion” belongs to the group of works “Identity and the Present” and was shown at Galerie Tschart in Leipzig in 2025. The work pairs a serious, socially relevant subject with a clear and formally independent pictorial solution. It suits collectors looking for contemporary figuration with depth of content.

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