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Artist Interview｜Max Huckle：Painting as A Forgiving Medium
艺术家专访 Artist Interview
Artist Interview｜Max Huckle
Q: Could you please introduce the concept and the working method of the series you are creating？
Max Huckle: Firstly, it's more important to say that the concept is constantly changing. It's hard to pinpoint the concept because it's free. I would lead it in the direction of a certain belief.
Q: Lines seem to be the main manifestations and core elements in your early works. How do you define lies？
Max Huckle: I would say lines in general are a big part of my work. When you look at the globe, you have horizontal and vertical lines and they all lead to some point. So I think the world is constructed out of lines.
Q: In your self-introduction you mentioned that you may be using your whole body to paint. What are the connections between the body and painting
Max Huckle: Firstly, the connection is between the mind and the body. Then as an ultimate result, this combination will stick to the canvas. First you think about it, then you have to take the action, and then you have the result.
The body is of course a tool. The hand is a tool; the mind is a tool; everything more or less is a tool. The brush is an extension of my arm. It also doesn't really matter what kind of brush I use. I work with what is available. I don't care about the quality of the material so much because in the end it's about the action that takes place. It's about what is happening and what is going on. In some paintings you see my fingerprints because I paint with my hands directly.
I'm very open-minded to the tools I use. It could be a piece of paper, a piece of cloth, a towel, a sponge, or something.
Q: Most of your works are improvised, Why do you use improvization as your main language of creation?
Max Huckle: Of course I do drawings on paper and smaller pencil drawings, but they will never be the blueprint for something. If I try to copy something, it will result in another artwork.
The way I work is not really sophisticated. It’s quite straightforward. I always do things from a gut feeling and I always have a proper idea of where I might end up.
I think it's important to take some risks, especially when it comes to painting. We're living in a highly structured world and we all have to somehow function or work in some certain order or under some authority. I want to free myself from the boundaries of a certain condition you may find yourself in.
Q: How do you define “mistakes”？
Max Huckle: The meaning of mistakes is different when we talk about painting. There are no mistakes because there may be beautiful mistakes or errors or glitches.It's something that can always be erased to some certain degree because it's a forgiving medium. It's a trial-and-error thing.If you look at some mistakes as a whole, they may make no sense at all. But maybe in an hour or two, or maybe tomorrow when I continue to make the painting, all of a sudden they make sense. Sometimes this is the most beautiful part of the painting.
Q: Somehow it's like our life. It was a blank space and we started to paint when we were born. Then suddenly in some point of our life journey we saw there was a part of our life we were not satisfied with and we wanted to cover it up. We wanted to erase it.
Max Huckle: Personally it's impossible to erase your past. We all did things we didn't want to do at one point in our life, but they will always be there.
But it's okay. It makes the person you are today and you can only learn from previous mistakes to become a better self. In the end you develop from shitty paintings and then you make another more satisfying painting.
Q: How did you combine your previous experiences with your current practice when it comes to photography.
Max Huckle: I think photography is still a very good tool to sharpen your vision, to really see and observe how the world is turning and moving. It freezes time.
For me, it's not too far away from painting because what I paint is also a certain translation of what I am surrounded with. The paintings I do over here in Zhujiajiao or in China in general look different than the other ones I did in Germany because my whole surrounding is completely different. In Germany, the sun has a different shade, and the greens have a different shade. Therefore I used a different palette. All of these had a direct influence on me.
Untitled, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
150 x 150 cm
Q: This is the third time you come to Zhujiajiao. Are there any changes in your mood?
Max Huckle: Since I know the surrounding, I don’t want to go outside every day and to take a look at the ancient town. I know I’m not here to look at all the beautiful things I'm surrounded with. They’re still very interesting to me, but now I focus a lot just on painting. I'm here to paint and I am really on a mission in a way.
Q: Could you please in a more succinct way introduce this series of work? What is the core idea of your work and this series?
Max Huckle: I tried to arrive here with no idea about what I wanted to do and I tried to see where it would go. That's the excitement of the unknown.
I felt that the moment I arrived here, I was a little bit less stressed than I was lately in Germany while painting. My palette changed to brighter and lighter colors. My paintings have more rounder shapes instead of hard ones. As you can see, I produced quite a lot of paintings. It's the ultimate freedom to come here and have no idea where it would go.It’s like exploring in a way.
Q: It seems that contingency is a very important notion in your oeuvre.
Max Huckle: I think change is a very good thing. I also believe that one should investigate the medium in every aspect. I always try to challenge myself. If I reach one point, I'm good to go. I'm ready to try something new because the more I work, the more I find out the things about myself, such as the way in which I really paint.
I don’t wake up in the morning and tell myself today that I will make a happy painting or a sad painting. The moods won’t have an impact on how the painting will look like in the end because they definitely change throughout the day or throughout the days while I am working on the paintings.But in the end, it's just about the good composition, lines, colors, pattern, repetition, body, memory, and movement.
I try to control them, but I cannot. It's a necessity for me to get up in the morning and start to paint. It's like walking or sleeping. It's part of my daily life. Without that something would be missing.
There’re so many unconscious parts in my painting that I simply cannot control. These parts might be a little bit dirty or very colorful. They are not intended to be read in a positive or negative way. It's always in a state of the in-between.
Max Huckle: To me the act of painting is a natural process. It's a physical necessity like walking, sleeping, drinking, eating. Since there's no right in painting, there can be no wrong. For me, the most important thing is to let go. If you let go, I have the freedom to act accordingly.
But in general, it's about rhythm and anti-rhythm. It's about harmony and disharmony. It's about memory and repetition. It's about carrying out the idea. It’s more or less about trying more things. It's also very progress-oriented, but progress is always a very fragile thing. The more you gain, the more you can potentially lose. It's always about both things. It always needs a certain balance. If it has no balance, it falls apart and it just doesn't make sense anymore to me. So I follow that chain of concepts that lead me to some kind of visual balance that I state for myself. I cannot speak for everyone else but I follow this in such a way.
I think failure is a big part of the progress in general or of life in general. There’s an aphorism which says that you’ll always fail in a better way. I truly believe that. On a large blank canvas there are so many options, so many ways to go, so many ways to fail. There are infinite possibilities in so much space. But in the end there's no need to think twice. The first brushstroke is the first mistake you make. Or is it the correct one？Do you know how to decide whether it is right or wrong? It’s just simply there.
Fast Forward, 2023
Acrylics on Raw Canvas
170 x 200 cm
Max Huckle: A certain color obviously asks for a counter-color, a move for a counter-move. It's simply about how it works for me. What I'm also interested in is the visibility of previous actions because they’re beautiful mistakes in a way. It's so transparent. It's almost not there anymore, but it's still there. All actions will always be visible. Something will always be there in the end. The end is implied in every beginning, and the chance to succeed are implied in every failure, whatever that means. I'm not the one who defines success. It is necessary to take risks and overcome fear when you’re afraid of ruining it.
The world will not stop turning if you fail to finish a painting. It's not the end of the world. If you make a mistake, then just continue.
The core concept of my work is more or less the things I’ve mentioned. At the same time do not try to overthink.
About the Artist
Max Huckle
Max Huckle was born in 1987 in Heidelberg, Germany. He studied photography at Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and Fukwangen University of Art from 2010 to 2012, and studied at Fukwangen University of Art from 2012 to 2013. In 2018, he followed Markus Vater for postgraduate study at The State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe in Germany.
Max Huckle’s workflow can be pictured as a dot on a large spiral, constantly moving along. He continuously strives to develop his work to a yet for him undefined point of satisfaction, which at the same time, when he reaches that point, sets him back to point zero. Another work circle is about to begin. His works show great variation from large scale paintings, to small drawings - nevertheless, two common features become apparent: Lines - lines divide. lines connect. lines structure space. Fortuitous material - He prefers to work with what falls into his hands. His work pattern is based on contingency - he follows his intuition to discover something new by chance and at the same time, apart from painting as a physical need, it is a tool to understand life - resulting in paintings depicting his emotional landscape.
Max Huckle won the 2015 State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe annual exhibition awards. His major solo exhibitions include: 「Tell Me」Something About Tomorrow, Leo Gallery Shanghai,2020; Waiting For The Bus to Miss It, Leo Gallery Hong Kong, 2018; To Finish First, You Have To Finish First, FILIALE, Frankfurt, Germany, 2018.
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