All About Oehlen
The definitive monograph of one of the most resourceful abstract painters alive
Often wryly funny and just as smart,
Albert Oehlen plays the painting medium for all it’s worth—and then some. After realizing that the so-called “death of painting” freed him to explore “the number of aspects through which one could expand painting,” Oehlen started work on a
wide variety of figurative and non-objective offerings, in what he has called his “post-non-figurative” art. For
The New Yorker, he is “
the most resourceful abstract painter alive.”
The artist continuously challenges himself, setting up rules that force him to overcome convention and his own routine in order to arrive at a satisfying image. During his career he has chosen to paint in primary colors only or in gray, to integrate
mirrors into his canvases, or to take up
computer painting when the first PCs became available. In his most recent work Oehlen expands painting through the use of
advertising posters whose in-your-face aesthetics he transforms with subtle brushwork. Never without a touch of tongue-in-cheek humor, his work seems to be winking at us as it dares us to change the way we perceive an image.
This monograph covers the entire scope of Oehlen’s oeuvre:
Roberto Ohrt discusses the early years, when Oehlen came into his own alongside Kippenberger, Büttner, and others, part of a scene that broke rules in art and rock music.
Klaus Kertess examines the years from 1988 onward, when Oehlen saw himself more self-consciously as a painter and started his first abstract works, then continued to probe the limits of the medium.
Martin Prinzhorn and
John Corbett take a close look at aspects of Oehlen’s iconography, and Oehlen discusses his computer paintings in a conversation with Corbett. An
exhaustive biography and bibliography round out this comprehensive study.
The artist
Albert Oehlen was born in Krefeld, Germany, in 1954. After graduating from the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst, Hamburg, in 1978, he came to prominence in the early 1980s, and has exhibited internationally. Influenced by Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, Oehlen's work focuses on the process of painting, exposing its structural elements. He lives in Switzerland.
The authors
Roberto Ohrt, born 1954 in Santiago de Chile, lives in Hamburg in Germany, and since 1990 has written on art, curated numerous exhibitions, and co-founded the Akademie Isotrop (1996–2001). Since 2001, he edits artist’s books through the Silverbridge publishing house in collaboration with Juli Susin.
John Corbett is a curator and writer based in Chicago. He is the co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, author of Extended Play (1994), Microgroove: Forays into Other Music (2015), and Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium (2017), and he produces CDs for Corbett vs. Dempsey’s label.
Art writer and curator Klaus Kertess has previously published monographs on Brice Marden and Joan Mitchell and recently written catalog essays on Lari Pittman, Chris Ofili, and Willem de Kooning, as well as contributing essays to books on John Chamberlain and Matthew Ritchie.
Martin Prinzhorn is a linguist at the University of Vienna and an art critic who regularly publishes essays in art books and magazines. Among many others, he has written on Georg Baselitz, Angela Bulloch, Lecia DoleRecio, Will Fowler, Sarah Lucas, and Martin Kippenberger.
The editor
Hans Werner Holzwarth is a book designer and editor specializing in contemporary art and photography. His TASCHEN publications include the Collector’s Editions Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen, Ai Weiwei, and the David Hockney SUMO A Bigger Book, as well as monographs like the XXL-sized Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Albert Oehlen. Art Edition
Edition of 100
Digital fine art print on archival photo carton, 19.7 x 25.6 in., hardcover volume in
clamshell box, 13 x 17.3 in., 660 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-0366-2
Multilingual Edition: English, French, German
