Viewing Room | Albert Oehlen

23 April - 8 June 2021
  • Albert Oehlen 1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland. Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an...
    Albert Oehlen 1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland. Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an...
    Albert Oehlen 1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland. Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an...
    Albert Oehlen 1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland. Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an...
    Albert Oehlen 1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland. Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an...

    Albert Oehlen

    1954, Krefeld, Germany. Lives and works in Switzerland.

     

    Albert Oehlen is an influential contemporary painter working in an eclectic variety of techniques and imagery. Сycling ceaselessly between abstraction and realism, artist creates a contemporary interpretation of traditional painting models, where the medium and techniques join together to turn to a new independent genre.

  • Oehlen began to incorporate new technologies into his work—inkjet printers, computer-aided design programs and references to the pixelated lines of...
    Albert Oehlen. Photograph: Oliver Schultz-Berndt

    Oehlen began to incorporate new technologies into his work—inkjet printers, computer-aided design programs and references to the pixelated lines of computer screens. Some of his self-imposed "rules" include limiting his palette and combining perambulating black lines with blended gradations (Tree Paintings), and utilizing erasure and layering to juxtapose bright and muddy colors (Elevator Paintings). Through expressionist brushwork and surrealist methodology he engages with the history of abstract painting, pushing the basic components of abstraction to new extremes.

     

    Recent major exhibitions by Albert Oehlen took place in such institutions as Serpentine Gallery, London (2020), Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2018), Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2018), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba (2017), The Cleveland Museum of Art (2016), Guggenheim Bilbao (2016), The New Museum, New York, (2015), Museo di Capodimonte, Naples (2009), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2009) and MOCA, Miami (2005).

  • Albert Oehlen “Cows by the Water” at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, 2018. Courtesy: Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Photo: Matteo De Fina (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Carroll Dunham / Albert Oehlen. Bäume /Trees Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2019 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019 © Carroll Dunham / Gladstone Gallery New York and Brussels. Photo: Katja Illner (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Installation view, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, 2018 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Installation view Albert Oehlen: Behind the Image, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, October 21, 2016–February 5, 2017. Photo: Erika Barahona Ede © FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa (View more details about this item in a popup).

    Albert Oehlen “Cows by the Water” at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, 2018. Courtesy: Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Photo: Matteo De Fina

  • Works

  • Albert Oehlen. Untitled, 2017

    Oil on canvas |  250 x 250 cm

     
    “A color chart is a starting point for a painting, but it’s also a way of exploring the possibilities of color and the relationships between colors.”
    — Albert Oehlen
  • Presenting color as object, color charts works by Albert Oehlen deliver an intense analysis of the fundamental principles of artistic... Presenting color as object, color charts works by Albert Oehlen deliver an intense analysis of the fundamental principles of artistic... Presenting color as object, color charts works by Albert Oehlen deliver an intense analysis of the fundamental principles of artistic...
    Presenting color as object, color charts works by Albert Oehlen deliver an intense analysis of the fundamental principles of artistic practice, namely that of paint and pigment. The random allocation of color into the squares eliminates the hierarchy of both color and compositional theory, focusing on the materiality of paint as the core subject.
  • Albert Oehlen. Untitled, 2017 © Gary Tatintsian Gallery

  • Albert Oehlen
    Untitled (Baum 44), 2015 | Untitled (Baum 78), 2016

    Oil on dibond | 250 x 250 cm

     

    "What reasons can you have to move left, right, straight, or in circles? There are many answers to that. And then i saw the trees doing that in a way, the winter tree that I choose. They have the freedom to make any move. And so they are a kind of model of abstraction." — Albert Oehlen

  • Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif... Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif...

    Albert Oehlen’s Baumbilder (Tree Paintings) series is a continuation of the artist’s exploration into abstract visual language. The tree motif first emerged in Oehlen’s work in the 1980s and has since become a recurring subject. Through the redefinition of this motif, Oehlen engages in a constant re-examination of the foundations of painting, expanding and bending its boundaries.

     

    In his study of abstraction, Oehlen has not entirely abandoned elements of figuration. The result is a sophisticated fusion of two opposing pictorial practices that, when combined, do not conflict but rather complement each other, creating a harmonious visual composition. The Tree Paintings blend the figural and the abstract, bridging the gap between representation and pure abstraction.

  • Albert Oehlen. Untitled (Baum 44), 2015 | Untitled (Baum 78), 2016 © Gary Tatintsian Gallery

  • Albert Oehlen

    Untitled (Baum 71), 2016 | Untitled (Baum 72), 2016

    Oil on dibond | 250 x 250 cm

  • Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to... Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to... Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to... Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to... Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to...
    Within the picture plane, a bare and leafless tree trunk, with tangled branches, floats against a white ground, next to blocks of magenta color gradations. The interplay of painted, spray-painted, and screen-printed lines creates a dynamic collision between mechanical and hand-made gestures. Rather than using a traditional canvas as his foundation, Oehlen chose aluminum-coated Dibond panels, adding a layer of depth and texture to his work. The geometric tree lines, initially appearing to be digitally produced, reveal themselves to be the product of careful hand-rendering upon closer inspection, demonstrating Oehlen’s ability to blend modern techniques with traditional painting methods.
  • Albert Oehlen. Untitled (Baum 71), 2016 | Untitled (Baum 72), 2016 © Gary Tatintsian Gallery
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