OEHLEN, Albert
Albert Oehlen [Friedrichs Foundation]

Time was out of the joints when Albert Oehlen painted the first pictures at the end of the 1970s. Given German history, terrorism, "No Future", "1984" and the permanent threat of a total nuclear war, painting could no longer pretend that the world was fine. The world breaks and with it the painting. Since all symbols, signs and means had become damaged and meaningless, Oehlen shows the painting in all its questionability. How does an authentic gesture differ from a blunt reproduction, a real feeling from a disillusioned copy? Oehlen makes brittleness the basis of his images. He invents an obviously fragmented image that is as baseless as the reality it shares in. Tracks, stimuli and afterimages of reality flash stroboscopically across his canvases. [publishers’ note]

For his 2023 solo show at the Friedrichs Foundation in Weidingen, Germany, Albert Oehlen has created a room-grabbing all-over installation. Painted on large paper frames, these occupied the entire walls of the two exhibition rooms.This book documents this project.

With a text by Christian Malycha.

Bilingual German / English.

Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2023
Design by Studio Martin Steiner
Exhibition Catalogues