by Arthur Barron
Art Basel, Miami Beach Convention Center, November 30, 2022
Commenting on Albert Oehlen (Durch die) rosa Brille, 2006 Acrylic and oil on canvas 110 ¼ x 133 7/8 inches
This is a belated article due to my mulling over process involving a number of pieces before coming down to and settling on writing about the selected Oehlen’s art work.
However, before launching in to writing. I first need to mention that the overall 2022 Art Basel art work experience was not really overly impressive. Although the scene was definitely enjoyable and terrific people watching, practically none of the art work truly jumped out and wowed me – just didn’t feel like there was anything actually new and exciting – seemed like the art was just a rehash of previous 2021 works – “somewhat” of a disappointment.
Next, I must make mention that although appreciate art work that is blatantly and intentionally commercial, that appeals to certain buyers as purely decorative pieces, I have a distaste for art work that is under the guise of pseudo seriousness, but in fact, are indeed commercial. Of which, there was an overloaded abundance of this glitter that pays for booth space at Basel, just as can be found in most galleries and shows universally.
With all that said, I must say that I absolutely love Albert Oehlen’s strikingly warm (Durch die) rosa Brille! The size and beauty of colors filling the depth of the canvas appeals to me, to my artistic sense of form and artistry. The piece appears to be symmetrically, but its loose symmetrical properties is what attracts me. One needs to take in the whole canvas from a good distance and then s-l-o-w-l-y approach to gaze at the details, which can be pleasantly startling.
Colors – Oehlen’s beauty of colors and symbolic shapes! The blues, greens, magenta colors mixed with grays and browns are wonderfully vivid, offset by artistically well-placed white spacing. The use of inlaid landscapes and mysterious hidden faces are tantalizing, along with the layering upon layering of coloring and collage imagery that invites you into the artist’s inner thoughts and conceptions. “A painting is meant to be a revelation of the artist’s authentic identity.”
Detail
As pointed out to me by Luhring Augustine gallery representative at Basel, Albert Oehlen is a German artist “best known for his embrace of ‘bad’ painting in which he allows a certain awkwardness or ugliness to enter his work, introducing unsettling gestures, crudely drawn figures, visceral smears of artificial pigments, bold hues, and flesh tones, and attests to the infinite combinations of form made possible through painting and show that these combinations can be manipulated at the artist’s will to produce novel perceptual challenges for the viewer.”
In order to express observational thoughts, I need to enjoy what I am “seeing.” I liked learning about Oehlen, and enjoyed writing about (Durch die) rosa Brille. I love whimsical, cosmic symbolism and what I refer to as abstract expressionism, so writing about this work is a delight for me. I became immersed with being able to loose myself in this art. The myriad of intricate artistic nuances and beauty of details drew me in, savoring the time devoted to viewing and imagining. The work is acrylic and oil, but much of the painting has a water color effect to it, especially in the blending brush strokes of coloring – vunderbar!
Talking of imagery, the obvious visual objects that most stand out in my mind’s eye that attracted and brought me to this canvas are Oehlen’s placement and use of magenta square and blue sphere – the prime imagery that invites you into the artist’s conceptions and journey into his art work.
Detail
