19.09. – 25.10.2026
https://www.kunst-und-gewerbeverein.de/programm/id/100-jahre-jahresschau
My contribution to the 100th anniversary: “bound and upright”
Peter Nowotny
Bound and Upright (eingebunden und aufrecht)
2021/2022, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 60 cm
by Winfried Heidrich
What is immediately striking about this painting of a female figure by Bad Abbach-based artist Peter Nowotny is that the figure has no face. At the same time, the image appears complete in its simplicity and clarity—as if nothing were missing. The shapes and colors of the clothing evoke the diversity and vibrancy of life. The emphasis on precisely rendered lines lends the work an abstract quality. Only the hairstyle and the painted earrings provide a personal touch, offering the viewer’s imagination a hint of what a face might look like. The figure lacks arms and feet; the painter deliberately leaves the identity of this female figure open. Nowotny draws inspiration for his subjects from Renaissance figures, photographs, and imagery found in contemporary advertising.
Peter Nowotny’s painting style is influenced by Byzantine iconography. How is this evident? For one, the figure occupies the entire pictorial space. The blank face—an iconic visage—confronts the viewer head-on, much like a devotional image. The figure is not rendered with three-dimensional volume but is instead painted in two dimensions; the lines defining the dress and turban are likewise borrowed from the visual language of icons. While the garments in traditional icons—governed by a strict canon—feature black lines against colored fabric, Nowotny reverses this: the lines of the clothing are colorful, while the fabrics themselves are nearly colorless. Though difficult to discern in a reproduction, the background features a varnish with a subtle silvery sheen. In many of his other works, the artist also employs gold as a background. In Byzantine art, gold and radiance signify the divine: the saints depicted in icons gaze at us from an otherworldly realm.
Behind the strictly pared-down lines of these figures lies a long artistic evolution. In the late 1980s, Nowotny’s lines were still highly expressive—marked by shadows, frayed edges, and branching offshoots. Gradually, the shadows along the edges of these lines faded, and the lines themselves became more pronounced and sharp. Eventually, the branching elements—which had once served to “narratively” connect the primary lines to one another—diminished, until they vanished from the canvas entirely. This process of visual refinement continued until Peter Nowotny arrived at the strictly defined, precise line work seen in this painting. What was once lush and expressive has now been “contained” within bold, clear lines.
