13 Rudolf Stingel Untitled 2010 oil on canvas 210 x 170 cm (82 5/8 x 66 7/8 in.) Signed and dated "Stingel 2010" on the reverse.
Provenance Gagosian Gallery, New York Catalogue Essay Rudolf Stingel is one of the most interesting artists of the last decades. His works are imbued with a thorough knowledge of art history and a sophisticated irony on taste and art. His oeuvre radically challenges the limits given to art, in particular to painting, and re-evaluates its possibilities. As Francesco Bonami put it, Stingel’s work "redefine what painting can be, what it has been, and what it is". Untitled shows a duality in the decorative pattern, referencing luxurious oriental carpets, domestic hand-woven textiles and kitsch wall paper design. These associations enrich the work while conferring visual elegance. The work is part of his wallpaper paintings, a composition of repeated units of decorative monochromes, mechanically reproduces. The layering of meanings and references of this work reaffirm his position as conceptual artist; at the same time his mesmerizing surfaces balance the conceptual with a delicate and sophisticated appearance that pleases and seduces the eye. Since the Renaissance, oriental carpets have been a sophisticated and luxurious element of design for royal and religious interiors as many paintings by Lotto, Bellini and others testify. Oriental carpets were associated with wealth, class and power. At the same time embroidery is connected to craft, domesticity and femininity, all aspects that contrast the opulence of the large size canvas on the wall. The monochrome disrupts the traditional grisaille paintings and the modernist fascination with a single colour on the canvas. The silver colour in particular clashes ideas of decadence, preciousness and asceticism together. The use of the silver hue is here re-invented in an ironic key: the spiritual associations are brought down to the everyday world. Furthermore, the use of monochrome plays with Piero Manzoni’s Achromes by inverting the artist’s own statement: "anything superfluous and all interpretative possibilities are excluded (from the canvas)." Some aspects of the painting remind of American Abstract Expressionism. The choice of a big scale canvas, and the application of paint all over the surface leave no beginning, middle or end to its content but just a ‘all overness’ typically associated with Jackson Pollock’s paintings. The viewer is given no focus to guide his gaze, but is left free to scan the surface of the canvas, take in the monumentality of the canvas’ presence on the wall. The physicality of the canvas is further emphasised by the absence of the frame; however importance given to the canvas’ presence on the wall is counterbalanced by the physicality of the decorative pattern on the surface thus Untitled undermines from within Abstract Expressionist dictums. The mechanical process of applying art is evident and it attacks the authority and originality of the artist. For the 1989 Venice Biennale, Stingel created Instructions, Istruzioni, Anleitung..., a manuscript published in various languages that details the materials and procedures of making a ‘Stingel-painting’. The artist self-destructs his own authorship onto his works and ideas creating a vehicle for a democratization of art and the unveiling of the aura that surrounds the artist as ‘genius’. In this way anyone can make art of the highest level. In a way Stingel creates the incipit for the creation of a potential community of artists in which originality has no importance. The democratic approach of the artist is further evident in the choice of materials for his works which links his practice to Italian Arte Povera. Stingel spans from Styrofoam to oil on canvas, from Aluminium-coated panelling to rubber. Often these different mediums are exhibited together and strangely they harmonise visually, thus upsetting the purity of the medium. Untitled floats between real and imaginary and the viewer is made very aware of this. The seriality and mechanic process of the work is undermined by the idiosyncrasies of each painting
13 Rudolf Stingel Untitled 2010 oil on canvas 210 x 170 cm (82 5/8 x 66 7/8 in.) Signed and dated "Stingel 2010" on the reverse.
Provenance Gagosian Gallery, New York Catalogue Essay Rudolf Stingel is one of the most interesting artists of the last decades. His works are imbued with a thorough knowledge of art history and a sophisticated irony on taste and art. His oeuvre radically challenges the limits given to art, in particular to painting, and re-evaluates its possibilities. As Francesco Bonami put it, Stingel’s work "redefine what painting can be, what it has been, and what it is". Untitled shows a duality in the decorative pattern, referencing luxurious oriental carpets, domestic hand-woven textiles and kitsch wall paper design. These associations enrich the work while conferring visual elegance. The work is part of his wallpaper paintings, a composition of repeated units of decorative monochromes, mechanically reproduces. The layering of meanings and references of this work reaffirm his position as conceptual artist; at the same time his mesmerizing surfaces balance the conceptual with a delicate and sophisticated appearance that pleases and seduces the eye. Since the Renaissance, oriental carpets have been a sophisticated and luxurious element of design for royal and religious interiors as many paintings by Lotto, Bellini and others testify. Oriental carpets were associated with wealth, class and power. At the same time embroidery is connected to craft, domesticity and femininity, all aspects that contrast the opulence of the large size canvas on the wall. The monochrome disrupts the traditional grisaille paintings and the modernist fascination with a single colour on the canvas. The silver colour in particular clashes ideas of decadence, preciousness and asceticism together. The use of the silver hue is here re-invented in an ironic key: the spiritual associations are brought down to the everyday world. Furthermore, the use of monochrome plays with Piero Manzoni’s Achromes by inverting the artist’s own statement: "anything superfluous and all interpretative possibilities are excluded (from the canvas)." Some aspects of the painting remind of American Abstract Expressionism. The choice of a big scale canvas, and the application of paint all over the surface leave no beginning, middle or end to its content but just a ‘all overness’ typically associated with Jackson Pollock’s paintings. The viewer is given no focus to guide his gaze, but is left free to scan the surface of the canvas, take in the monumentality of the canvas’ presence on the wall. The physicality of the canvas is further emphasised by the absence of the frame; however importance given to the canvas’ presence on the wall is counterbalanced by the physicality of the decorative pattern on the surface thus Untitled undermines from within Abstract Expressionist dictums. The mechanical process of applying art is evident and it attacks the authority and originality of the artist. For the 1989 Venice Biennale, Stingel created Instructions, Istruzioni, Anleitung..., a manuscript published in various languages that details the materials and procedures of making a ‘Stingel-painting’. The artist self-destructs his own authorship onto his works and ideas creating a vehicle for a democratization of art and the unveiling of the aura that surrounds the artist as ‘genius’. In this way anyone can make art of the highest level. In a way Stingel creates the incipit for the creation of a potential community of artists in which originality has no importance. The democratic approach of the artist is further evident in the choice of materials for his works which links his practice to Italian Arte Povera. Stingel spans from Styrofoam to oil on canvas, from Aluminium-coated panelling to rubber. Often these different mediums are exhibited together and strangely they harmonise visually, thus upsetting the purity of the medium. Untitled floats between real and imaginary and the viewer is made very aware of this. The seriality and mechanic process of the work is undermined by the idiosyncrasies of each painting
Testen Sie LotSearch und seine Premium-Features 7 Tage - ohne Kosten!
Lassen Sie sich automatisch über neue Objekte in kommenden Auktionen benachrichtigen.
Suchauftrag anlegen
