Jens Schubert - Juwelenherz

Jens Schubert
Jewel Heart, 2013
Linocut, 7 colors on BFK Rives Bütten, 250 g/m²
56 x 76 cm
40th edition
Signed and numbered by the artist.

In 2011 Jens Schubert, born in 1983, completed his studies at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, the forge of the so-called New Leipzig School, which has become internationally famous for its expressively figurative painting. He lends the traditional printmaking technique of linocut a new shine by layering color after color and form after form in several print runs, and from abstract geometric shapes and figurative elements he creates dense and sculptural, richly colored collages and worlds of images.
In 2011 Schubert received the Marion-Ermer Prize as an award for his “virtuoso handling of the print technique of linocut,” according to the jury’s statement. Although still so young, the artist, who continues to live in Leipzig, has already participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, for example in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Mexico City, and New York. The Dumont Art Calendar for 2014, featuring 12 works by new German painting, also includes a page by Schubert, alongside works by Jorinde Voigt, Tim Eitel, and Thomas Scheibitz.
Are these hands beckoning us or keeping us at bay? They protectively cluster around the diamond in the center, the “Jewel Heart” framed by a four-headed golden snake. And the comic-book-like outlines, as well as the masks or skulls adorned with ornaments, emphasize the preciousness of this treasure.
In seven colors, the artist Jens Schubert, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, in collaboration with Tabor Presse, printed his edition, produced exclusively for artflash. For each of the seven printing stages he used a new stencil; for each motif he cut the corresponding shapes into the plates, before in the letterpress workshop the layers were laid on top of one another, so that different individual motifs would merge to form new figures. This sometimes lengthy working process may leave traces in Schubert's works and, as in 'Juwelenherz,' testifies to the singularity of this artistic practice.