„The ego is the place of deception,“ explained the French psychoanalyst, who in an important essay emphasizes the importance of the face in view of its own reflection for the process of man’s ego-finding process in the course of his childhood development. „The mirror stage as the creator of the ego function“ emphasizes the importance of the unity and recognizability of one’s own face and body image in overcoming the child’s own body, which the child previously experienced as fragmented and uncoordinated. This is the only way to ensure that you are not constantly being flooded by your own impulses pushing you in all directions. As simple as Agata Schubert-Hauck’s facial studies appear, the psychological processes they illustrate are just as complicated. It is an entirely different form of face study from that of the traditional painterly (or sculptural) portrait, similar to that brought to canvas by the painter Francis Bacon. In the face not only the unmistakable external features, but also unmistakable characteristics of this person, injuries and peculiarities, as if the soul and its experiences were part of the flesh tissue. The psychological dimension that Agata Schubert-Hauck wants to make visible in their heads and faces, Unlike Bacon, he avoids any individualization of the face and instead brings into the picture typifications that express mental states, mental mechanisms and mental patterns in the form of the human face. It is not individual mental aspects and feelings that are to be made concisely visible, but mental processes that are effective in every human face. And again it is an attempt by the artist to bring paradoxes into view. And that also means that all these difficult faces probably don’t belong to many people, but to one person. Possibly the artist herself…

Texts by  Jürgen Kisters