Beschreibung:

Rudolf Stingel Untitled 1986 Oil and enamel on canvas. 220.7 x 180 cm. (86 7/8 x 70 7/8 in). Signed and dated 'Stingel 86' on the reverse.
Provenance Private collection, Switzerland Catalogue Essay First recognised in the late 1980s for his monochromatic works, Rudolf Stingel has developed a singular approach to painting aiming to undermine the very essence of the creative act. With simultaneous attention to surface, image, colour and space, he creates new paradigms for the meaning of painting. Reflecting upon the fundamental questions concerning painting today – authenticity, meaning, hierarchy and context – his abstract works stand in close tradition to Gerhard Richter Yet unlike Richter, Stingel’s works form a new approach, trying to overcome the gap between figuration and abstraction, constantly negotiating a balance between kairos and kronos – that is, between the exact moment of time in which the viewer is confronted with the present – or its illusion, for that matter – and eternal time which never ends but results in abstraction. Stingel thus moves painting one step further, understanding that it carries energy as well as consuming it, and that abstraction happens when the power goes off momentarily. “To paint is to act. Yet this action does not necessarily produce a painting. Most of the time, the result is an approximation of an ideal painting that exists in the mind of the painter. Although painting can be an action, it must also be an observation. The mere act of painting does not create a Painting but simply some painting. But if the action of painting is used as a lens to observe reality to create another reality, then we have a Painting. Stingel creates a transitive way to recede from abstraction into the subject and to push the subject into a different kind of time.” (Francesco Bonami ed., ‘Paintings of Paintings for Paintings – The Kairology and Kronology of Rudolf Stingel’ in Rudolf Stingel London, 2007, pp. 13–14) Read More Artist Bio Rudolf Stingel Italian • 1956 New York-based Italian artist Rudolf Stingel was first recognized in the late 1980s for his singular conceptual approach to painting. He constantly questions the function, utility and limits of the medium through hyper-detailed stencil work and by way of a lavish bourgeois aesthetic thrown onto bordered surfaces. Borrowing from the Baroque, Stingel sets up a visual landscape from which the viewer expects excess, but that quickly destabilizes the field of vision by creating a perfectly contained work of traditional beauty. In effort to push the effect of painting to its limits, Stingel notoriously challenges questions of authorship by using various materials, including carpet, styrofoam and silver sheets, to recontextualize surface, depth and color. View More Works