Video
Albert Oehlen
School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2015 Commencement Address
Albert Oehlen delivered the commencement address at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. In his humorous and insightful speech, he considers the importance of freedom to artistic practice. As artists, Oehlen reminds graduates, “we are technicians of freedom, and it is our duty to make use of this privilege.”
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Screening
Albert Oehlen
van G
Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 6pm
Curzon Mayfair, London
www.curzon.com
Join Gagosian for a special screening of van G (2023), a film made collaboratively by Albert Oehlen and director Oliver Hirschbiegel, in conjunction with the artist’s exhibition of new paintings at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. A romance, the film depicts the relationship between Vincent van Gogh (played by Ben Becker) and his models, whom he struggled to recruit and pay. Van G additionally provides insight into the artist’s techniques, clearing up some common misunderstandings about them. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Oehlen. The event is free to attend.
Albert Oehlen on the set of van G (2023). Photo: Simon Hemmer
Playlist
Albert Oehlen
Tramonto Spaventoso
Albert Oehlen has created a playlist of fourteen tracks on Spotify ranging in genres from free jazz to techno. Featuring musicians such as Steamboat Switzerland and Colin Stetson, the playlist shares the title of his upcoming exhibition at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, in which he interprets and transforms John Graham’s painting Tramonto Spaventoso (Terrifying Sunset) (1940–49). The artist discovered the work by the Russian-born American modernist painter in the 1990s and has been fascinated with it ever since.
Albert Oehlen in his studio, Ispaster, Spain, 2020. Artwork © Albert Oehlen. Photo: Esther Freund
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)
Francesca Woodman
Ahead of the first exhibition of Francesca Woodman’s photographs at Gagosian, director Putri Tan speaks with historian and curator Corey Keller about new insights into the artist’s work. The two unravel themes of the body, space, architecture, and ambiguity.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2024
The Spring 2024 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available with a fresh cover design featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Lead Plate with Hole (1984).
Sofia Coppola: Archive
MACK recently published Sofia Coppola: Archive 1999–2023, the first publication to chronicle Coppola’s entire body of work in cinema. Comprised of the filmmaker’s personal photographs, developmental materials, drafted and annotated scripts, collages, and unseen behind-the-scenes photography from all of her films, the monograph offers readers an intimate look into the process behind these films.
Adaptability
Adam Dalva looks at recent films born from short stories by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and asks, What makes a great adaptation? He considers how the beloved surrealist’s prose particularly lends itself to cinematic interpretation.
Not Running, Just Going
Robert M. Rubin’s Vanishing Point Forever (RideWithBob/Film Desk Books, 2024) explores the production, reception, and lasting influence of Richard Sarafian’s 1971 film. In this excerpt, Rubin discusses the pseudonymous screenwriter Guillermo Cain (Guillermo Cabrera Infante), the famous Kowalski car, and how a nude hippie biker chick became the Lady Godiva of the internal combustion engine.
On Frederick Wiseman
Carlos Valladares writes on the life and work of the legendary American filmmaker and documentarian.
You Don’t Buy Poetry at the Airport: John Klacsmann and Raymond Foye
Since 2012, John Klacsmann has held the role of archivist at Anthology Film Archives, where he oversees the preservation and restoration of experimental films. Here he speaks with Raymond Foye about the technical necessities, the threats to the craft, and the soul of analogue film.
Whit Stillman
In celebration of the monograph Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago (Fireflies Press, 2023), Carlos Valladares chats with the filmmaker about his early life and influences.
Lisa Lyon
Fiona Duncan pays homage to the unprecedented, and underappreciated, life and work of Lisa Lyon.
Jamian Juliano-Villani and Jordan Wolfson
Ahead of her forthcoming exhibition in New York, Jamian Juliano-Villani speaks with Jordan Wolfson about her approach to painting and what she has learned from running her own gallery, O’Flaherty’s.
Stanley Whitney: Vibrations of the Day
Stanley Whitney invited professor and musician-biographer John Szwed to his studio on Long Island, New York, as he prepared for an upcoming survey at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to discuss the resonances between painting and jazz.
Game Changer: Alexey Brodovitch
Gerry Badger reflects on the persistent influence of the graphic designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.