This early, large-scale painting by established German artist Thomas Scheibitz (b. 1968) is a muted and elegant example of his early work. Created just two years after Scheibitz received his MFA, “Himmel” demonstrates how the artist’s signature flexes between abstraction and figuration are already in clear development. Himmel means both heaven and sky in German. Scheibitz’s choice of title is not primarily intended to signify the painting’s content; rather, its serves as its own visual and phonetic experience. In the artist's words, “I try to make it so… the work controls the title and not the other way round, that the title determines a work.” This emphasis on the structure of the word distances the viewer from its signification, much like Scheibitz’s persistent approach to abstracting and breaking down realist subjects into their systemic parts inside his paintings.

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