Klaus Hu (born 1963 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a Berlin-based artist working primarily in painting, alongside drawing and photographic research, with an extended practice that includes site-specific and curatorial concepts. His work navigates the space between abstraction and figuration, combining narrative and poetic elements grounded in photographic archives and conceptual inquiry.
Across his practice, Hu returns to landscape as a central field of investigation—whether examining the land use and visual culture of the American Southwest, reflecting on the legacy of 1960s abstraction, or exploring ecological and historical perspectives. His paintings unfold through layered processes that engage with mass media and constructed realities, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction while opening an emotionally charged, reflective space.
The STRIPES series from 2015/16 (see text – some random thoughts on Stripes) refers to photographic and painterly references by American colleagues who, in the 1960s, used the theme of the American ruin or the national flag as a metaphor. Translated into the present, bubbles and hashtags—as well as stripes—have become part of our digital overload of information, often functioning as propaganda that pulls us into a whirlpool of emotions. The STRIPES ensemble takes the opposite path: it is about reclaiming truth and fiction.
How would you describe your artistic approach? Is there a particular principle that connects all your works?
I work in series that span one to three years, each encompassing a thematic or narrative framework. The theme may exist at the beginning of a series, emerge during the process, or only become clear at the end of a phase in the studio. Before 2013, my works were more loosely connected thematically; since 2013, and especially since UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES, the series have become more conceptually tied to a theme or narrative.
At the same time, the painting process itself has become more important, so as not to become a slave to the theme or narrative.
Your works deal strongly with distance—physical, psychological, and chronological. What particularly interests you about portraying these “distant” perspectives in your landscapes and compositions?
Distance is particularly relevant in the series UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES (2013/15), HI ALTITUDE (2019/21), and the new series LA FOLIA (2024/26), as I work with my own photographs, historical references, newspaper clippings, as well as drawings and collages. Distance is always relative, but it opens up the possibility of approaching a subject or theme from a different perspective.
Streetlights in your works sometimes appear as threatening, almost alien presences. What role does the uncanny or the unfamiliar play in your work, and how would you like the audience to respond?
Streetlights actually appear in only one painting, in the STRIPES ensemble, and refer to Stephen Shore. Otherwise, they have no significance in my work (though they might become an idea for future night paintings).
The uncanny was a consideration in the CLOUD 9 series (2022/23), as clouds in 19th-century British painting—particularly in Constable—often represented something uncanny, evoking a sense of foreboding (the metaphysical as well as the ephemeral). In the CLOUD 9 series, I play with this idea, although the cloud formations are based on photographs I took over ten years above my studio and translated into painting in 2022/23.
Are there new projects, ideas, or themes you would like to realize in the near future, or directions you want to explore further in your work?
At the moment, I am finishing the LA FOLIA series (2024/26), which responds to a musical theme originating in Portugal or Spain. Through sub-themes, I try to respond to the folly of the present through painting—using recollections and premonitions.
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