Albert Oehlen - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Wednesday, February 16, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Bärbel Grässlin , Frankfurt

  • Exhibited

    Madrid, Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Martin Kippenberger – Albert Oehlen, 1989; Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Albert Oehlen: I Know Whom You Showed Last Summer, 18 November 2005–8 January 2006

  • Literature

    Martin Kippenberger – Albert Oehlen, exh. cat., Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid, 1989 (illustrated); Albert Oehlen: I Know Whom You Showed Last Summer, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, 2005 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    With its monumental scale and vivid brushwork, this early untitled canvas from 1989 is a prime example of Albert Oehlen's artistic repertoire. Driven by an explosive collision of line, colour and form, Oehlen's highly layered composition lies on the cusp between abstraction and figuration. Behind its chaotic appearance lies an intense investigation of the possibilities and limits of painting.
    Emerging with Martin Kippenberger in 1980s Germany, Oehlen created a painting and artistic style which confronted the evident rift between art, ideology and politics at the time. The stirring darkness of this unsettling composition challenges the preconceived notions and expectations of conventional abstract and figurative painting. Presenting the viewer with a web of unobtainable or definite information, Oehlen entangles his audience into the painting's surface encouraging the viewer to consider and reflect upon the juxtaposition between the two primary modes of expression available to a painter.

PROPERTY FROM THE VALENCIA CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION

22

Untitled

1988
Oil, metallic paint and varnish on canvas.
200 x 280 cm (78 3/4 x 110 1/4 in).
Signed and dated 'A. Oehlen 88' lower right.

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for £193,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Feb 2011
London