Dirk Skreber - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 12, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, Switzerland

  • Exhibited

    Düsseldorf, Galerie Schmela, Dirk Skreber – Bilder, August 18 – September 11, 1989; Kunstraum Munich, Skreber, June 23 – August 1, 1992 and Kunsthalle Rostock, July 12 – September 5, 1993

  • Literature

    D. Skreber, C. Tacke, Dirk Skreber: Kunstraum Munchen, 23.6. Bis 1.8.1992, Kunsthalle Rostock, 22.7. Bis 5.9.1993, Munich, 1993, p. 18, (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Dirk Skreber´s works, even his large-scale figurative compositions, do not attempt to be representations of reality. There are no stories to be told, no hidden messages to be deciphered. Skreber’s painting delivers the grounds for a deception, postulating as its subject exactly what it will not show. The motifs convey the feeling of being ‘frozen’ in time; painting becomes a medium to show a condition, a situation of existence. The choice of subjects seems to be a lesser concern, as these are reduced to the sole function of figuring as pictorial objects, but it is not a negative reduction: It seems as if this were the only role for which they were ever intended. Therefore, it is often objects and places of everyday life - houses, cars, trains, and sports fields - that are privileged as pictorial objects.

    As a strict consequence of this principle, objectivity in the new paintings is reduced. The process of painting becomes the real object. The jump from the concrete into the abstract seems a small step, creating a phenomenal constellation between realism and abstraction. The thoroughly designed play of mixed and pure colours soberly reveals that which is purely visible. Additional spills, sprays, and smears of colour bind the image back to its painterly origins, making the medium concretize into its own substance. The pure abstraction in the paintings shown here still reveals traces of their figurative origins, and is the logical final consequence of Skreber´s artistic development.
    Taken from www.engholmengelhorn.com

269

Untitled

1989
Oil on canvas.
79 1/8 x 118 1/4 in. (201 x 303 cm).

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 ≠♠†

Sold for £120,000

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Evening Sale
13 October 2007, 4pm
London