Lot Essay
Untitled 4 (two windows) by German-born, Vienna-based artist Ernst Yohji Jaeger is a mysterious study of emotion and perspective. A young woman leans on a windowsill, her head in her hands, as a man looms behind her. There is a brooding tension here, but their relationship is uncertain. The intimate scale of the painting brings us closer to them, though they do not return our gaze. Behind the figures is yet another open window with a tiny, gleaming moon. With the gorgeous artist-colored frame around the scene, Jaeger creates yet another window, resulting in an alluring mise en abyme. As we can see in Untitled 4 (two windows), Jaeger’s process is labor-intensive and multifaceted. He recounts, “I often ground my paintings with glue and mix in a very vibrant bright pigment like cadmium red. I’ll build up darker layers of color in a two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of way, scratching and scraping” (E.Y. Jaeger, quoted in N. Trembley, “Artist of the Month: Ernst Yohji Jäger,” Numéro, November 2021). This skill has garnered Jaeger international recognition. A celebrated young painter, he has been included in prestigious group exhibitions globally, such as L’Almanach 23 at Le Consortium, Dijon, France, Another Surrealism, Den Frie, Copenhagen, and I will wear you in my heart of heart, the Flag Art Foundation, New York.
The Surrealists are important forebears for Jaeger, most notably René Magritte. Untitled 4 (two windows) draws upon the Surrealist master’s ability to unsettle our vision. The waning moon and the mysteries of the night are also shared interests for Jaeger and Magritte, such as the latter’s The Mysteries of the Horizon (1955) and The Sixteenth of September (c. 1956-1958). These are not just formal comparisons, however. Jaeger and Magritte share an interest in the radical individuality of a viewer’s experience of their work. In this vein, Lou Ellingson of Artforum writes of Jaeger’s paintings, “Wherever we’re headed, we glide on into the night of our inner worlds—calm one moment, troubled the next—wholly knowable to us alone” (L. Ellingson, “Critics’ Picks: Ernst Yohji Jaeger,” Artforum, November 9, 2023). The same is true for the characters within Untitled 4 (two windows), who are also wonderfully inscrutable to us.
It is true that “Jaeger has a talent for twilight scenes, for creating colors at once rich and subdued, and these subtly layered works [glow] like sunsets seen through smoke, or as miniature Mark Rothkos might in a darkened room” (Z. Lescaze, “Ernst Yohji Jaeger: 15 ORIENT,” Artforum, July/August 2020). The present work is exemplary in this regard, and it evinces both Jaeger’s technical skill and his talent for mining human relationships. We cannot reliably say what is going on between the painting’s protagonists, but what is clear is Jaeger’s relationship to painting. His love for painting is evident, and, like the central moon of Untitled 4 (two windows), his mastery of the medium shines through.
The Surrealists are important forebears for Jaeger, most notably René Magritte. Untitled 4 (two windows) draws upon the Surrealist master’s ability to unsettle our vision. The waning moon and the mysteries of the night are also shared interests for Jaeger and Magritte, such as the latter’s The Mysteries of the Horizon (1955) and The Sixteenth of September (c. 1956-1958). These are not just formal comparisons, however. Jaeger and Magritte share an interest in the radical individuality of a viewer’s experience of their work. In this vein, Lou Ellingson of Artforum writes of Jaeger’s paintings, “Wherever we’re headed, we glide on into the night of our inner worlds—calm one moment, troubled the next—wholly knowable to us alone” (L. Ellingson, “Critics’ Picks: Ernst Yohji Jaeger,” Artforum, November 9, 2023). The same is true for the characters within Untitled 4 (two windows), who are also wonderfully inscrutable to us.
It is true that “Jaeger has a talent for twilight scenes, for creating colors at once rich and subdued, and these subtly layered works [glow] like sunsets seen through smoke, or as miniature Mark Rothkos might in a darkened room” (Z. Lescaze, “Ernst Yohji Jaeger: 15 ORIENT,” Artforum, July/August 2020). The present work is exemplary in this regard, and it evinces both Jaeger’s technical skill and his talent for mining human relationships. We cannot reliably say what is going on between the painting’s protagonists, but what is clear is Jaeger’s relationship to painting. His love for painting is evident, and, like the central moon of Untitled 4 (two windows), his mastery of the medium shines through.