Albert Oehlen | "L. P. A.", 2007 | (for Parkett 79)
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Parkett Vol. 79
Quote from Parkett
“There is method in his madness, madness in his method. Oehlen employs error as method, but if it is deliberate, is it error? Logic is more inescapable than it looks. It’s not enough putting one foot in front of another; maybe you need to put one foot in front of somebody else’s or put the foot in the mouth where it belongs.”
Glenn O’Brien Parkett No. 79, 2007
Additional Quote
“Albert Oehlen’s L.P.A. is a transporting etching and print, one that melds figuration, abstraction, and text. A mustached, three-eyed face and a woman’s body are both discernible—to a simultaneously entertaining and disquieting effect.” -Artspace
"L. P. A.", 2007 (for Parkett 79)
Etching and Charbonnel black ink on Hahnemühle Dürer Etching White 300 g/m2,
paper size: 20 3/4 x 26 1/2” (53 x 66,5 cm),
image: 13 3/4 x 20 1/4” (35 x 51,5 cm),
printed by Greg Burnet, Burnet Editions, New York,
Ed. 60/XX, signed and numbered
Artist Document
The figures and text appearing in Albert Oehlen's etching "L.P.A.", 2007 (for Parkett 79) are motifs which have recurred in his work repeatedly over the last thirty years, that are drawn from a painting Oehlen came across thirty years ago by artist John Graham titled 'Tramonto Spaventoso' (‘Terrifying Sunset’), 1940 (below).
As Oehlen says: "[The painting is] some kind of vehicle for me. It’s like a construction kit of motifs. It’s actually one motif, but with various elements that are different in nature. It goes from the graphic to the picturesque. That means there are parts that prompt you to paint more, to become more plastic. Then there are others with a big letter and smaller text and a wooden bar. There’s a head with a pilot hat and goggles. But there could also be a third eye, rays and lines going into the depths, like in [Salvador] Dalí, or the wooden planks that we find in Jörg Immendorff paintings." -Exhibition Catalogue Serpentine Gallery, 2019
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