.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘Oehlen has painted himself into a position where none of his canvases can be described as either abstract or figurative… Freed from any notion of formal repetition, of content or theme, he is able to investigate, question, experiment and play in the plastic cosmology – the very material and matter – that constitutes and defines that universe… Oehlen’s sampledelic, synthesized practice extends painting’s vocabulary – its expressive, emotional range – whether intentionally or not. But it is his attitude – Punk’s lasting legacy – that ensures his work remains so restless and vital’ (M. Clark, ‘Abstract Painting Must Die Now’ in Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006, p. 59).
A monumental psychedelic tableau of objects and forms, colour and texture, confronts the viewer in Albert Oehlen’s Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of). Rich streaks and sfumato layers of vibrant paint conspire to create an explosive panorama of shapes and gestures. An upside-down teapot and the head and shoulders of a figure hover within the cataclysmic texture, whilst unidentifiable geometries loom large against an impenetrable surface. With its cut-off title evoking the world of legend and fable, Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of) is a striking example of Oehlen’s contemporary brand of artistic mythology, a discourse that the artist has irreverently dubbed ‘postnon- representational’. Executed in 2001 and exhibited the following year at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Strasbourg, the work is situated within the visionary upheaval of painting’s purity that Oehlen has spearheaded since the 1980s. After shifting from figuration to abstraction in the latter part of that decade, Oehlen’s work since the 1990s has fought to implode the relevance of either term. Mining images from popular culture and the media as well as ruthlessly pulling apart his art-historical legacy, Oehlen’s later practice constitutes a highly-charged investigation into the very nature of image-making. As Martin Clark has written, ‘Oehlen has painted himself into a position where none of his canvases can be described as either abstract or figurative … Freed from any notion of formal repetition, of content or theme, he is able to investigate, question, experiment and play in the plastic cosmology – the very material and matter – that constitutes and defines that universe … Oehlen’s sampledelic, synthesized practice extends painting’s vocabulary – its expressive, emotional range – whether intentionally or not. But it is his attitude – Punk’s lasting legacy – that ensures his work remains so restless and vital’ (M. Clark, ‘Abstract Painting Must Die Now’ in Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006, p. 59).
Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of) bears witness to Oehlen’s subversive dialogue with the history of painting: a dialogue that constitutes the backbone of his practice. In particular, the fantastical juxtaposition of images and motifs in the present work has strong overtones of Surrealism, a movement with which Oehlen strongly identifies. ‘There is this general image that one has of Surrealism’s big spaces and little figures, of the funny dream stuff, impossible things doing impossible things’, the artist has claimed. ‘… On the other hand I see Surrealism as the first artistic movement, or group of artists, that really intensely thought about method … I definitely see myself as linked to them, my thinking comes from there, although it looks very different. I like to play around with Surrealism’s typical motifs, because of their references and associations – the fantasy, the craziness, that anything is possible’ (A. Oehlen, ‘In Conversation: Albert Oehlen with Andrea Tarsia’ in Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006, p. ii). The upside-down teapot in the work also invokes the work of Georg Baselitz, Oehlen’s predecessor on the post-War German art scene. As Oehlen has explained, ‘The question “abstract or not abstract,” for example, is irrelevant to me. I have a whole series of forerunners in this opinion, for example Georg Baselitz, who turned the motif upside-down–a magnificent gesture, considered and courageous … Upside-down, the subject is still recognizable, but it doesn’t make sense, because it’s standing on its head (A. Oehlen, quoted in ‘The Rules of the Game’, Artforum, November 1994). It is this kind of conceptual play, articulated from within the parameters of painting itself, that has defined Oehlen’s unique contribution to contemporary art.
A monumental psychedelic tableau of objects and forms, colour and texture, confronts the viewer in Albert Oehlen’s Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of). Rich streaks and sfumato layers of vibrant paint conspire to create an explosive panorama of shapes and gestures. An upside-down teapot and the head and shoulders of a figure hover within the cataclysmic texture, whilst unidentifiable geometries loom large against an impenetrable surface. With its cut-off title evoking the world of legend and fable, Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of) is a striking example of Oehlen’s contemporary brand of artistic mythology, a discourse that the artist has irreverently dubbed ‘postnon- representational’. Executed in 2001 and exhibited the following year at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Strasbourg, the work is situated within the visionary upheaval of painting’s purity that Oehlen has spearheaded since the 1980s. After shifting from figuration to abstraction in the latter part of that decade, Oehlen’s work since the 1990s has fought to implode the relevance of either term. Mining images from popular culture and the media as well as ruthlessly pulling apart his art-historical legacy, Oehlen’s later practice constitutes a highly-charged investigation into the very nature of image-making. As Martin Clark has written, ‘Oehlen has painted himself into a position where none of his canvases can be described as either abstract or figurative … Freed from any notion of formal repetition, of content or theme, he is able to investigate, question, experiment and play in the plastic cosmology – the very material and matter – that constitutes and defines that universe … Oehlen’s sampledelic, synthesized practice extends painting’s vocabulary – its expressive, emotional range – whether intentionally or not. But it is his attitude – Punk’s lasting legacy – that ensures his work remains so restless and vital’ (M. Clark, ‘Abstract Painting Must Die Now’ in Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006, p. 59).
Die Pfeifenden von (The Whistlers of) bears witness to Oehlen’s subversive dialogue with the history of painting: a dialogue that constitutes the backbone of his practice. In particular, the fantastical juxtaposition of images and motifs in the present work has strong overtones of Surrealism, a movement with which Oehlen strongly identifies. ‘There is this general image that one has of Surrealism’s big spaces and little figures, of the funny dream stuff, impossible things doing impossible things’, the artist has claimed. ‘… On the other hand I see Surrealism as the first artistic movement, or group of artists, that really intensely thought about method … I definitely see myself as linked to them, my thinking comes from there, although it looks very different. I like to play around with Surrealism’s typical motifs, because of their references and associations – the fantasy, the craziness, that anything is possible’ (A. Oehlen, ‘In Conversation: Albert Oehlen with Andrea Tarsia’ in Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006, p. ii). The upside-down teapot in the work also invokes the work of Georg Baselitz, Oehlen’s predecessor on the post-War German art scene. As Oehlen has explained, ‘The question “abstract or not abstract,” for example, is irrelevant to me. I have a whole series of forerunners in this opinion, for example Georg Baselitz, who turned the motif upside-down–a magnificent gesture, considered and courageous … Upside-down, the subject is still recognizable, but it doesn’t make sense, because it’s standing on its head (A. Oehlen, quoted in ‘The Rules of the Game’, Artforum, November 1994). It is this kind of conceptual play, articulated from within the parameters of painting itself, that has defined Oehlen’s unique contribution to contemporary art.