Albert Oehlen

Often wryly funny and just as smart, Albert Oehlen’s paintings play the 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. 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 start on computer paintings 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 XL 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 onwards, 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. While Oehlen fans will rejoice at the publication of this breathtaking book, no one with an interest in contemporary art should pass up this unique opportunity to discover Oehlen’s remarkable body of work.

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 and Spain.

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 works as a curator and writer from his home base in Chicago. He is the co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, author of Extended Play (Duke University press, 1994), and runs the Unheard Music Series, issuing CDs of historical jazz and improvised music.

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. Recently he has written on Sarah Lucas, Angela Bulloch, Lecia Dole-Recio, and Will Fowler.

The editor:
Hans Werner Holzwarth is a freelance book designer and editor based in Berlin, with numerous publications mainly on contemporary art and photography. For TASCHEN he has edited, among other titles, Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen and Neo Rauch.