Extended through November 9, 2019
Works Exhibited
About
These paintings are made in such a way that they accept order only very reluctantly. Eventually there is some form of order, but they strive against it.
—Albert Oehlen
Gagosian is pleased to present a series of new paintings in watercolor on canvas by Albert Oehlen, his first exhibition in Asia.
Oehlen approaches painting as a perceptual challenge, a puzzle set within the unpredictable arena of the picture plane. He often imposes specific rules or limitations on his work—keeping to a certain palette or beginning with a straight line—as a way to interrogate the infinite possibilities that the act of painting presents. By continuously flipping between chaos and control, he opens up new relationships between pictorial space, color, and gesture.
In these new paintings, Oehlen emphasizes the importance of spontaneity within his artistic method. Diverging from his recent works created with oil or lacquer on aluminum or the aluminum composite Dibond, Oehlen’s decision to use watercolor in this series marks a stylistic return to his hazy, blended, almost impressionistic oil paintings dating from 2016 and earlier.
這些畫作極不情願地跟隨規矩，雖然最終有些秩序，它們卻極力想擺脫束縛。
—阿爾伯特·厄倫
高古軒欣然呈獻阿爾伯特·厄倫（Albert Oehlen）首場亞洲展覽，展出其一系列布面水彩新作。
厄倫視繪畫為感知的挑戰，是在畫面這個難以預測的競技場內的一幅拼圖。他創作時往往會在作品中加上特定的規則或限制，例如只用某種顏色或以直線開始創作，從而探索繪畫行為的無限可能性。他在混沌與掌控之間不斷遊走，在圖像空間、色彩與姿勢之間建立全新的關係。
在這些新繪畫裡，厄倫利用其獨特的藝術手法強調隨心創作的重要性。不同於他近期以油彩或光漆在鋁板或鋁板合成的材料Dibond上創作的作品，此系列主要運用水彩，標誌著他重拾2016年甚至更早期近乎印象派的朦朧油畫風格。
厄倫先繪製灰白色的底色，然後以彈濺手法加上不同的色彩。色彩飛越畫布，濃豔的紫紅色（他在《樹畫》系列作品中將之形容為「歇斯底里」的顏色）如靈蛇般貫穿不同畫作，穿透模糊不清的鮮色水彩，最後在畫布別處形成不同的點。厄倫陶醉於線條的動感，賦予線條生命力，並主宰其作品千變萬化的構圖的每一個轉折點。
然而，厄倫亦以偶爾的克制緩和狂亂的筆觸。在四散的色彩斑點之間，充斥著線條、曲線和漸變色彩，均以令人滿意的一致性描繪而成。厄倫的畫作乍看之下缺乏幾何的規律性，但實際上卻滿佈俐落的直角，包括反覆出現的L形圖案，令人想起他於2018年「SEXE, RELIGION, POLITIQUE」展覽展出的黃黑色畫作。這些強而有力的直角、類似窗戶的長方形開口和詭異的人形融入畫布之中，如水的質感更加強了它們令人沮喪又誘人的無常特性。這些模糊的形態被四周的色彩吞噬，並在色彩的漩渦中逐漸消失。
此展覽同時亦推出附有精美插圖和藝術史學家Christian Malycha撰文的展覽圖錄。
由Hans Ulrich Obrist策展的厄倫作品展將於2019年10月2日在倫敦Serpentine Gallery揭幕。
#OehlenNewPaintings
Artist
Downloads
Albert Oehlen: Terrifying Sunset
The artist speaks with Mark Godfrey about his new paintings, touching on the works’ relationship to John Graham, the Rothko Chapel, and Leigh Bowery.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2021
The Summer 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006) on its cover.
In Conversation
Albert Oehlen and Mark Godfrey
Albert Oehlen speaks to Mark Godfrey about a recent group of abstract paintings, “academic” art, reversing habits, and questioning rules.
Albert Oehlen: In the Studio
This film by Albert Oehlen, with music by Tim Berresheim, takes us inside the artist’s studio in Switzerland as he works on a new painting.
In Conversation
Albert Oehlen and Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews the artist on the occasion of his recent exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries, London.
Albert Oehlen: Maximum Chance Maximum Control
The artist met with art historian Christian Malycha to discuss his newest paintings.
News
Online Reading
Albert Oehlen
New Paintings
Albert Oehlen: New Paintings is available for online reading from April 7 through June 5 as part of Artist Spotlight: Albert Oehlen. Published on the occasion of the artist’s first exhibition in Asia, in 2019, this volume presents a series of new paintings in watercolor on canvas. Emphasizing the importance of spontaneity within his artistic method, Oehlen’s decision to use watercolor marks a stylistic return to his hazy, blended, almost impressionistic oil paintings dating from 2016 and earlier. The catalogue features a text by Christian Malycha, as well as photographs of the works in process, and is bilingual, in English and Chinese.
Albert Oehlen: New Paintings (Hong Kong: Gagosian, 2019)
Artist Spotlight
Albert Oehlen
April 7–13, 2021
Albert Oehlen’s oeuvre is a testament to the innate freedom of the creative act. Through expressionist brushwork, surrealist methodology, and self-conscious amateurism he engages with the history of abstract painting, pushing the basic components of abstraction to new extremes. Oehlen is perhaps best known for his embrace of “bad” painting. Alongside his many rules, he allows a certain awkwardness to enter his work, introducing unsettling gestures, crudely drawn figures, visceral smears of artificial pigments, bold hues, and flesh tones. In this way, he attests to the infinite combinations of form made possible through painting, and shows that these combinations can be manipulated at the artist’s will to produce novel perceptual challenges for the viewer.
Photo: Alejandro Ernesto/EPA/Shutterstock
Art Fair
Art Basel Miami Beach Online
Gagosian Online
November 29–December 7, 2020
Presented in four forty-eight-hour cycles
gagosian.com
OVR: Miami Beach
VIP preview: December 2–4, 2020
Public viewing: December 4–6, 2020
artbasel.com
On the occasion of Art Basel Miami Beach 2020, which was canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gagosian is pleased to present works by modern and contemporary masters on two concurrent online platforms: Gagosian Online, which will feature four individually curated groupings of artworks in forty-eight-hour cycles, and OVR: Miami Beach.
Helen Frankenthaler, Distant Barrier, 1992 © 2020 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Tour
Albert Oehlen
New Paintings
Thursday, October 10, 2019, 6pm
Gagosian, Hong Kong
Gagosian senior director Han-I Wang will lead a tour of Albert Oehlen’s first exhibition in Asia, a series of new paintings in watercolor on canvas. In these works, Oehlen emphasizes the importance of spontaneity within his artistic method. Oehlen’s use of watercolor in this series diverges from his recent works created with oil or lacquer on aluminum or the aluminum composite Dibond, and marks a stylistic return to his hazy, blended, almost impressionistic oil paintings dating from 2016 and earlier. To attend the free event, RSVP to hktours@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Albert Oehlen, Untitled, 2019 © Albert Oehlen. Photo: Jeff McLane
