Beschreibung:

Albert Oehlen Panza de Burro 2001 Oil and acrylic on canvas. 86 1/2 x 146 1/2 in. (219.7 x 372.1 cm.) Signed, titled and dated “A. Oehlen 01 Panza de burro” on the reverse.
Provenance Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples Exhibited Lausanne, Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts; Salamanca, Domus Artium 2002 and Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Albert Oehlen Paintings/Pinturas 1980-2004 Self-Portrait at 50 Million Times the Speed of Light, June 18, 2004 – June 26, 2005, p. 117 (illustrated in color) Literature “La Escatología de Oehlen,” Blanco y Negro Cultural, December 11, 2004, p. 26 (discussed); R. Beil, ed., Albert Oehlen Paintings/Pinturas 1980-2004 Self-Portrait at 50 Million Times the Speed of Light, Zurich, 2004, p. 117 (illustrated in color) Catalogue Essay Albert Oehlen’s 2001 piece, Panza de Burro, (translated into English as The Donkey’s Paunch), refers in its title to the meteorological layering of clouds above both the forests of the Canary Islands and western South America. We find this general concept in the piece, where nebulous layers of paint seem to conceal a painting of clarity behind them. This obscurity is in keeping with Oehlen’s general aesthetic, or rather, anti-aesthetic, in which he bucks all compositional technique in favor of populating a canvas with stratum upon stratum of clashing oil and acrylic. Despite his intentional compositional defiance, his completed canvases still exhibit technical excellence and something “culturally witty and formally rigorous” (R. Smith The New York Times, May 21, 2009). In many ways, the canvas itself defies formulaic description, as the saturated hues of blue and lightning strikes of orange and red seem dominated by smears of tan and brown. In turn, these layers of obscurity are subject to stamps and lines of varying blacks and whites, frantically running over the layers of clouds beneath them. “I’m not interested in the autonomy of the artist or of his signature style. My concern, my project, is to produce an autonomy of the painting, so that each work no longer needs that legitimizing framework” (Oehlen quoted in D. Diedrichsen, in “The Rules of the Game — Artist Albert Oehlen — Interview”, in ArtForum, November 1994). In Panza de Burro, Oehlen achieves his goal of giving the painting, rather than the painter, autonomy. The alternating obscurity and clarity, formed by the clouds above the forest, hint at worlds above and beneath, each straining to be seen. Read More