Karl Hubbuch can best be classified as a representative of Verism and New Objectivity. In his paintings he is less obviously political than his colleagues Grosz and Dix. Hubbuch had a great talent for recognizing the particularity of each individual and depicting it. As early as 1924, on the occasion of the artist's first solo exhibition, a reviewer wrote that Hubbuch was "a cool observer, a philosophical mind full of ideas, a decidedly contemporary satirical talent."
At the end of the 1920s, there is a loosening of the pictorial structure and a more unified conception of bodies and space in his paintings. In the 1950s, Hubbuch intensively engaged with Max Beckmann and developed an expressive formal language. Hubbuch is a social physiognomist who describes a class with the people and captures the social and historical contexts with the surrounding space.