Walter Obholzer has found a structure for his painting that is solid enough to be able to make a statement of general validity. He used an artists’ extensive freedom to develop rules for his art; he has found a system within which he can think and paint well. Very often, photos form the basis of his paintings – the tool he has made his very own is the airbrush. Thus he never comes in contact with the support, and also avoids physical contact with the picture. The three works in the evn collection show entwined balls of cable or hose. Starting from a scanned, computer-altered photograph, Obholzer divides his motive into colour areas and, with shading, helps the depiction achieve an astonishingly plastic third dimension away from the absolute flatness of the support (aluminium sheeting).

The central point that Obholzer makes is that painting should function as a system of thought. He answers this difficult question by employing painting as a system of reflection. He answers it with the retreat of the painter as an individual who, by renouncing personal handwriting, makes pictures available as universal entities.

Brigitte Huck, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)