Hubert Schmalix

_{1952 Graz}

Hubert Schmalix was born in Graz in 1952. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Maximilian Melcher from 1971 until 1976. His earliest works are defined by intense colors and expressive brush strokes. After staying in the Philippines for quite some time, the nude female body started playing a dominant role in Schmalix’s works. In the 1980s, he was named one of the most important members of the “Neue Malerei” and the “Neue Wilde”, along with Siegfried Anzinger, Erwin Bohatsch and Alois Mosbacher. His international breakthrough followed, after he took part in the Biennale in Venice in 1980. Through the years, a shift from intense expressive works to more calm and naïve ones is discernible. In 1987 the artist moved to Los Angeles. In his last years, the colors in his works became more and more reserved. Besides the naked female form, Schmalix also devoted himself to painting landscapes and flower still-lives. He enjoyed portraying idyllic, uninhabited places, which opposed his works on the more urban, geometric Los Angeles. Hubert Schmalix was named professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1997.