Untitled

Description

Albert Oehlen is known for anti-authoritarian work that attempts to reassess the role of painting in postwar Germany. Untitled is from a series that the artist began in the late 1990s, in which he used basic computer technology to “draw” gesture. After printing these already-mediated images, enlarging and silkscreening them onto canvas, he painted over them—either erasing lines and shapes with white paint, extending marks with black brushstrokes, or adding spurts of spray paint. Exploring the dichotomy of the virtual and the handmade, these hybrid paintings raise questions about what constitutes freedom and control, addressing the intimate relationship between computer technology and human labor.

Provenance

The artist; sold through Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, to Donna and Howard Stone, Chicago, Mar. 17, 2005 [invoice in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 14, 2023.

Untitled

Albert Oehlen

1997

Accession Number

184618

Medium

Screen print, acrylic and oil on canvas

Dimensions

245 × 190.5 cm (96 1/2 × 75 in.)

Classification

N/A

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Donna and Howard Stone