ALBERT OEHLEN

The Painter, a film by Albert Oehlen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Ben Becker

© 2020 by Albert Oehlen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Ben Becker
© 2020 by Albert Oehlen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Ben Becker

Under the direction of Oliver Hirschbiegel, actor Ben Becker on screen impersonates the contemporary painter Albert Oehlen and re-creates a painting that Oehlen himself and in parallel is creating step by step in the background, with the actor improvising the process in front of the camera. The finished on-screen painting is an original “Oehlen” on which the artist himself never laid hands. The off screen blueprint painting was destroyed after principal shooting had finished.

Originally planned to be a performative statement the projects developed into a fully fledged feature film of 92 minutes, crossing formal boundaries and questioning the meaning of the creative process and the struggle for authenticity on various levels.

The Painter follows the artist / actor as he is struggling and suffering along this process with us watching in joyful despair and what might happen next until the white canvas has turned into a finished painting.

The outcome is a one-man rollercoaster that appears to be a documentary but in fact is a staged and guided improvisation with the “real” process happening behind the camera. The Painter is a constant flow of the artist’s journey with elements of farce and comedy topped with emotional moments of truth...in front of and behind the camera and leaving it up to us to decide what is real and/or authentic.

Watch the trailer here.


Picture Tree International

© 2020 by Albert Oehlen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Ben Becker
© 2020 by Albert Oehlen, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Ben Becker

Additional:

ALBERT OEHLEN

Malerei: Selected Works from the Collection (solo show)
Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing
24 May – 27 October 2024

Installation view: Malerei: Selected Works from the Collection, Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing, 2024 © Adagp, Paris 2024, photo: Sun Shi / Louis Vuitton, courtesy of the artist and Fondation Louis Vuitton
Installation view: Malerei: Selected Works from the Collection, Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing, 2024 © Adagp, Paris 2024, photo: Sun Shi / Louis Vuitton, courtesy of the artist and Fondation Louis Vuitton

Albert Oehlen: Malerei features six paintings made by the artist over thirty years from Fondation Louis Vuitton’s collection: Untitled (1992–2005), Mission Rohrfrei (1996), Rasieren (2005), Rock (2009), Untitled (2017) and Ömega Man 23 (2022). The works – many of which are on view for the first time – are presented as part of the Fondation’s Hors-les-murs, a programme which introduces the collection to international audiences in major cities. The presented selection reveals Oehlen’s long and boundary pushing engagement with the history of abstract painting.

Espace Louis Vuitton

Installation view: Malerei: Selected Works from the Collection, Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing, 2024 © Adagp, Paris 2024, photo: Sun Shi / Louis Vuitton, courtesy of the artist and Fondation Louis Vuitton
Installation view: Malerei: Selected Works from the Collection, Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing, 2024 © Adagp, Paris 2024, photo: Sun Shi / Louis Vuitton, courtesy of the artist and Fondation Louis Vuitton

ALBERT OEHLEN

Ömega Man, 2023 (outdoor sculpture) 
Stiftung zur Förderung Zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen / Rodenhof
On view from 15 July 2023

Albert Oehlen, Ömega Man, 2023, photo: def image
Albert Oehlen, Ömega Man, 2023, photo: def image

Albert Oehlen’s monumental sculpture Ömega Man, 2023, is now on view to the public in Weidingen, where it emerges from the vast landscape of the Südeifel. Its simplified form and slightly raised steel bars, recessed into their concrete casting, evoke the lightness of a drawing. Here, the persistent importance of the line in Oehlen’s work becomes evident, appearing simultaneously curved and controlled. In this work, the artist uses elements which are both abstract and figurative to critically examine the history and conventions of contemporary art, all the while continuing to acknowledge the importance of classical models. Massive yet fragile in its isolation, Oehlen's Ömega Man appears like a monument from the future. Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, is here written with an umlaut, thereby referring to the artist’s own name. 

Stiftung zur Förderung Zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen

Albert Oehlen, Ömega Man, 2023, photo: def image
Albert Oehlen, Ömega Man, 2023, photo: def image

ALBERT OEHLEN, ADAM PENDLETON

Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman (publication)
Published by Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Holzwarth Publications, 2023

Photo: def image
Photo: def image

The new catalogue published on the occasion of the group exhibition Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman, on view at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin from 4 November 2021 until 29 January 2022, is now available for purchase. Alongside installation views and high-resolution images, the publication includes a conversation between Amy Sillman, Adam Pendleton, and Isabelle Graw.

Learn more

Photo: def image
Photo: def image