Albert Oehlen: Redefining Painting and Mediums at the Secession Exhibition

This exhibition showcases Albert Oehlen's redefinition of painting beyond its hype, questioning the canvas against new media and its own history. It features 24 newly created large and medium-format paintings, divided into two groups that engage in a multifaceted dialogue.

Albert Oehlen has redefined the medium of painting in an international context beyond its hype in the late 1970s and 1980s. His concern is not the defense and continuation of a traditional field; rather, it is about constantly questioning the panel painting in the face of new media and its own history. With wit, staged disinterest in the form of representation, and surprising shifts in meaning, he comments on the values and ideologies within art and the role of the classical concept of the image. His works utilize figurative and abstract elements in equal measure. For the Secession, Albert Oehlen presented 24 large and medium-format paintings created specifically for this exhibition, forming a new body of work divided into two groups engaged in a multifaceted dialogue. One series explores interior spaces with a mix of photography and painting, breaking down the boundaries of these media. Oehlen collages photographs and photo segments onto the canvas, integrating them into his gestural painting, referencing an availability of image templates and attacking the traditional purity of painting through calculated unprofessionalism. The contrast of materials on the surface, alongside the unity of the depicted motif, creates a unique tension. Another group of works continues a series initiated in 1997 that explores the color spectrum of gray. Figures emerge and recede within a schematic appearance, formulating a dualism of striving for dissolution while simultaneously asserting form. Through these ongoing experiments, Oehlen investigates the meaning and function of the pictorial subject beyond style and mystifying explanations.

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