Press release
466KB
march 22, 2021 - Gagosian Gallery
ALBERT OEHLEN | Tramonto Spaventoso April 22–June 5, 2021 456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills
Gagosian is pleased to present Tramonto Spaventoso, an exhibition by #albertoehlen comprising the second part of his version of the Rothko Chapel in Houston as well as other new paintings. The first part of the project—consisting of four paintings that mirror the imposing scale of the Color Field compositions in the Chapel while opposing Rothko's contemplativeness with their frenetic energy—was exhibited at the Serpentine Galleries, London, in 2019–20. Both parts make up the work Tramonto Spaventoso (2019–20).
Oehlen uses abstract, figurative, and collaged elements to disrupt the histories and conventions of modern painting. By adding improvised components, he unearths ever-new possibilities for the genre. While championing self-consciously amateurish "bad" painting, Oehlen continues to infuse expressive gesture with Surrealist attitude, openly disparaging the quest for reliable form and stable meaning.
In the large-scale canvases on view at the Beverly Hills gallery, Oehlen employs acrylic, spray paint, charcoal, and patterned fabric to interpret and transform John Graham's painting Tramonto Spaventoso (Terrifying Sunset, 1940–49), a work by the Russian-born American modernist painter that he discovered in the 1990s and has been fascinated with ever since. Using Graham's puzzle-like painting as a vehicle for repeated interpretation, Oehlen reconfigures elements in diverse and absurdist ways across multiple compositions. The exhibition, which goes by the same title, is therefore in part an homage to the earlier, lesser-known artist.
Reworking motifs from Graham's original, including a mermaid and a man sporting a monocle and a Daliesque handlebar moustache, Oehlen improvises on his source. In explosive abstractions in acrylic and spray paint, he combines graphic brushstrokes, deliberate "painterly" drips, surprising color combinations, and textural obfuscations to test the limits of coherence and legibility. Oehlen's paintings are characteristically disparate, challenging the viewer with unexpected shifts in aesthetic and thematic direction.
To accompany Tramonto Spaventoso, Oehlen commissioned music by Steamboat Switzerland, the experimental jazz ensemble with whom he also collaborated at the Serpentine Galleries. Played at intervals throughout the day, the recorded composition draws connections with Oehlen's own visual strategies.
A fully illustrated catalogue, featuring a conversation between the artist and curator Mark Godfrey, will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.
Albert Oehlen was born in 1954 in Krefeld, Germany, and currently lives and works in Gais, Switzerland. Collections include the Broad, Los Angeles; Museum of #contemporaryart, Los Angeles; Art Institute of Chicago; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; Museum of #contemporaryart North Miami, FL; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; and Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Exhibitions include Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy (2009); Réalité Abstraite, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2009); Terpentin, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2012); Malerei, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2013); 55th Biennale di Venezia (2013); Die 5000 Finger von Dr. Ö, Museum Wiesbaden, Germany (2014); Home and Garden, New Museum, New York (2015); An Old Painting in Spirit, Kunsthalle Zürich (2015); Behind the Image, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (2017); Woods near Oehle, Cleveland Museum of Art (2017); TRANCE, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2018); Cows by the Water, Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2018–19); Unfertig, Lokremise Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2019), and Serpentine Galleries, London (2019–20).#AlbertOehlen
U5zvA7UqwvJp 1200x1500
1125x1500, 327KB
Related news |
||
|
|
|
march 07, 2023
|
february 14, 2023
|
august 29, 2022
|
|
Gagosian is pleased to announce the ömen: #albertoehlen paintings and #paulmccarthy sculptures, an exhibition of recent paintings ... |
NEW YORK, February 14, 2023—Gagosian is pleased to announce the ömen: #albertoehlen paintings and Paul McCarthy sculptures, an exh... |
SEOUL, August 29, 2022—Gagosian is pleased to participate in the inaugural edition of Frieze #seoul with a presentation of works b... |
Download all 
You might be interested in |
||
|
|
|
june 07, 2021
|
march 31, 2021
|
march 05, 2021
|
|
Gagosian is pleased to present Albert Oehlen's Tramonto Spaventoso (2019–20). This is the first time that Oehlen's provocative and... |
Gagosian's second season of Artist Spotlight—a series that focuses on an individual artist for one week each month—presents a neve... |
Thaddaeus Ropac is delighted to welcome #marthajungwirth to the gallery for worldwide representation and will show her first solo ... |
Italian 
Download all 
Share
Share via mail 
Automotive
Sport
Events
Art&Culture
Design
Fashion&Beauty
Food&Hospitality
Technology
Nautica
Racing
Excellence
Corporate
OffBeat
Green
Gift
Pop
Heritage
Entertainment
Health & Wellness