PRIZEWINNER
FRANCE
Hubert Westermann
Ultime Atome 1998
acrylic on board 78.8 x 119 cm
Exhibition Catalogue No. 57

Hubert Westermann was born in Metz, France, in 1937, and is a self-taught artist who lives in Lattes. He is known for his paintings of the Camargue region of France. The picture shows a flat, featureless, and barren landscape. A dark mustard haze clings to this wasteland and contrasts with the brilliant blue strip of atmosphere above. The land has no vegetation and is baked hard and cracked. The painting is characterised by a hyper-realist style, which gives an impression of a surreal place, like a vision of another world. The artist describes the striking image as showing ‘the Camargue earth which cries and cracks beneath the blows of the modern world. Let the sea take back its land and its power. Let humanity lose its appetite for the concrete, so that the Camargue can live again.