Albert Oehlen

In this body of work, Oehlen balances figuration with abstraction to simultaneously question and reference the practice and history of art. Oehlen uses Picasso's early neoclassical works, Velázquez’s painterly qualities and de Chirico's metaphysical explorations as a point of departure. Oehlen's choice of the self as his subject matter was not to introduce a psychological element into his work, but rather to express his thoughts on painting as a medium using a decisive subject matter. By stripping the creation of a painting down to its basic rules, Oehlen diminishes the limitations of previous cultural, aesthetic and artistic obligations.

This book contains a translated interview between Albert Oehlen and Rainald Goetz in both English and German.