The definitive monograph of Oehlen's work to dateOften 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.Following on from the Collector's and Art Edition, this is the trade hardcover edition.

Product Description: Four decades after he first burst onto the international art scene in the early 1980s, Albert Oehlen (born 1954) remains among the most influential and controversial painters of the present. Operating between figuration and abstraction with vigor and energy, Oehlen relentlessly critiques painting’s history, its clichés and its relationship to the imagery of the advertising and pop industries--all within the medium itself (rather than in another art form)...read more

Product Description: In the early 1980s, Germany's "Neue Wilde" burst upon the art scene, craving new images. One of the artists was Albert Oehlen (born 1954). This collection marks his major solo shows in Hamburg, Vienna and Prague in 1994 and 1995.