Since changing his pictorial medium, Thomas Hauri has been painting on very large sheets of paper. Despite having specialised in traditional oil painting at Basel’s Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (1996-1999), he turned to watercolour during a stay in Berlin in 2001.
This more direct and spontaneous technique, which he had previously regarded as secondary, became his preferred field of experimentation, by means of which he depicted architectural forms—a hall, esplanade, door and window—from partially abstract perspectives.
After creating series that were inspired by existing buildings and bore a title, such as Prora (2005) (which isolated parts of the seaside complex of the same name), his subjects gradually shifted towards a higher degree of abstraction, detaching themselves from any identifiable motif.
His solo exhibitions, like the one at the Kunsthaus Baselland (2016), reveal this profound dialogue between the symbolic structure of his spaces and the real architecture, skilfully linking the delicacy of the medium with the intensity of the tones.
Thomas Hauri lives and works in Basel.
This more direct and spontaneous technique, which he had previously regarded as secondary, became his preferred field of experimentation, by means of which he depicted architectural forms—a hall, esplanade, door and window—from partially abstract perspectives.
After creating series that were inspired by existing buildings and bore a title, such as Prora (2005) (which isolated parts of the seaside complex of the same name), his subjects gradually shifted towards a higher degree of abstraction, detaching themselves from any identifiable motif.
His solo exhibitions, like the one at the Kunsthaus Baselland (2016), reveal this profound dialogue between the symbolic structure of his spaces and the real architecture, skilfully linking the delicacy of the medium with the intensity of the tones.
Thomas Hauri lives and works in Basel.
