Albert Oehlen uses abstract, figurative, and collaged elements—often applying self-imposed formal constraints—to disrupt the histories and conventions of modern painting while acknowledging the continuing significance of classical art.

Approaching his practice as a perceptual challenge, he moves freely between planned and improvised strategies. And while championing self-consciously “bad” painting characterized by crude drawing and jarring coloration, he infuses expressive gesture with Surrealist attitude, disparaging the quest for stable form and meaning.

In this show, Oehlen`s works on paper are highlighted. Echoing the pixelated patterns found in digital imagery, the curving black lines in Oehlen’s works simultaneously recall Surrealist automatism, as well as the emotive energy of Abstract Expressionist painters, from Jackson Pollock to Franz Kline.

In several of the works on paper, certain passages are covered with collaged paper or smears of white paint, creating a pentimento effect. Brimming with free-flowing forms, letters and movement, the works read like cyphers, graphs or musical scores. Enacting a push-and-pull, these systems seem to indicate paths to reading the works, no sooner followed than they are interrupted.

Layering and unfurling over one another, the lines convey a sporadic musicality akin to the syncopated rhythms of jazz – a longstanding influence on Oehlen’s practice. 

Albert Oehlen is fascinated with works that are “on the way to becoming something else,” and that may exist in multiple forms and versions.

Albert Oehlen
Max Hetzler Gallery
Berlin, Germany
Current exhibition through 8 August
https://www.maxhetzler.com

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