De Es Schwertberger

The Stoneman, which is integrated into the Philopsopher’s Stone card deck, dominates the paintings of his Stone Period (1973-1980). Surprisingly in 2015, Schwertberger started to animate this theme of the Stoneman again. These works are featured here for the first time.

A world made of stone, with stone beings abiding by an umbilical interaction. There’s a common soul, an ambivalent destiny, one that goes after its vanishing point, whilst at the same time finds itself on a collision course.

Using a metaphoric comparison, stones have something organic and the beings, somehow, have a stone trait. Within this undoable destiny, Schwertberger establishes analogies and contradictions between the being and his environment, the mutual transformations, the human condition, his limitations and even the image that he has of himself. A rhythmic cycle made by a repetition of patterns and behaviours. The man who becomes the stone, the stone that becomes the man. A bridge and a canon between two worlds, doing it through massification, the oppression of stone’s weight, the claustrophobia of an imminent crush. A body that is tied to the ground or the jump, the detachment, the act of winning against gravity, the escape in an attempt to reach freedom.

According to the author, his paintings are his voice, a way of telling stories of the journey of Getting to the Point, where the inner and the outer, the one and the many, merge in peace. How close we are - Art can tell.

His message filled with meanings finds an intense expression in the transformation of the individual, in the image that he projects and in his self-image.

By Pedro Boaventura • Excerpt from Masters of Painting - Volume 1

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De Es Schwertberger was born in 1942 in Gresten, Lower Austria, in a family of teachers.

He studied the painting technique of the Old Masters in Vienna with Ernst Fuchs and is an independent artist since 1962. De Es lived three years in Switzerland and twelve years in New York City. He resides and works again in Vienna since 1986. He has since then had umerous exhibitions and publications.

The artist considers himself to be a seeker, who shows what he has found through “the language of the images”. His message of “meaning and transformation” nds clear and intense expression in his paintings through a precise use of space, light and texture. Schwertbergers themes evolve continously, thus re ecting the rapid transformations of the human “self-image“.

De Es Schwertberger is known worldwide through his Philosopher’s Stone Card Deck, the book Heavy Light, the Planetarian Sculptures and the Dome of Peace project. “My voice is in my paintings, telling stories of the journey of “Getting to the point” where “the inner” and “the outer”, “the one” and “the many”, merge in peace. How close we are - Art can tell."

Contact Artist

De Es Schwertberger

De Es Schwertberger - Video