UNLV ACQUISITION CHAT: DANIEL HABEGGER 'CLEARANCE' AND "PLAZA TOWERS"

Daniel Habegger
Clearance, 2003-2008, 2014
Oil on Belgian linen
Barrick Museum Collection
(Above)

Daniel Habegger
Plaza Towers, 1997
Oil on canvas
Barrick Museum Collection
(Below) ​

​Daniel Habegger's “Clearance” and “Plaza Towers” cannot be fully felt through a jpeg. You have to be in front of it. The image, the ground, your ground, drifts apart and radiant grays click into place. The patchy matte surface cannot be taken in all at once. It makes and remakes itself before you. 


Every mark is essential, and there are many marks, and the affect evolves (very similar to the way light rakes across the facade of a city building). 


Immediately, I thought of the self-reflexive paintings I’ve New York, but without irony, and with nothing in quotes. The artist states: "I have never had a conflict with representational, and abstract, non-representational methods, because, essentially, my paintings are for the most part, self-referential, about the process of painting itself."

- Alisha Kerlin

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Swiss born Daniel Habegger has a way of finding abstract romance in the non-adorned, which speaks of his homeland’s graphic design that uses visual references to bounce off industrial design. But through his paintings Habegger moves away from that tradition of sterile representation by finding life in the façades we read as elegatarian-speak of architects. Habegger has long found beauty in the simplicity of materials, as seen in "River//Stop" during "Reduced Part II" at Clark County Government Center in 2010. “I have never seen a distinction between representational and abstract styles because essentially, my paintings are about the process of painting itself,” once said the artist.  - EF

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Recent Acquisitions" is the current exhibition of recently acquired works for UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum and Las Vegas Art Museum. While The Barrick posts items from the collection on their Facebook page, Alisha Kerlin, UNLV Collections Manager, and I will share thoughts on selected works on Thursdays.  "Recent Acquisitions" runs throughSeptember 19.

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Previous tours from Alisha Kerlin, Collections Manager, Barrick Museum.
Jack Endewelt
Robert Beckmann