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Article: Albert Oehlen at Luhring Augustine and Nolan/Eckman.
- Article from:
- Art in America
- Article date:
- December 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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These two exhibitions of recent work by the German painter Albert Oehlen arrived attended by the machinery of mythmaking; the artist's back story is even bigger than his paintings. Kingpin of the punk-era Hamburg School and leading proponent of Bad Painting in its European incarnation, Oehlen has for some years been turning out the most visually brash painting imaginable. It is almost surprising that his new work holds up under the weight of expectation.
Oehlen explores the valence of structure versus chaos by appearing to eschew traditional compositional resolution. Keenly interested in the shapes of things, he taunts the viewer's impulse to identify subject ...