TAL R: The Elephant behind the Clown

Exhibition catalogue, edited by Florian Waldvogel
with an interview (German/English) with the artist by Florian Waldvogel
88 p with 50 colored illustrations
240 x 215 mm, softcover with flaps

ISBN 978-3-940953-79-7
 

39,80 €

New Paintings

Born in Tel Aviv in 1967 and now living in Copenhagen, the artist rose to fame with his seemingly naïvely painted abstractions, in which some viewers liked to spot visual goulash for one, or simply celebrated the values of artistic expression and its autonomy, pre­sumed dead a long time ago. Alongside a simple abstraction of figur­a­tive signs, the powerful, strictly selected and deployed palette of colours was particularly eye-catching. The paintings were impressive because of their calculated and brightly coloured radiance.
For quite some time now, TAL R has been altering the essential fig­-ur­a­tion in his paintings, guiding its abstract quality back into a styl­ised and yet an apparently standardised form, which one might describe perhaps as a condition one step ahead of actual abstraction, and so concomitantly, the ornamental element also recedes.
This pull towards Classicism is further supported by a complete ­renunciation of previous techniques. Instead of the application of pastose oils, a mixture of rabbit-skin glue and pigments is now ­directly deployed on ungrounded canvas so that a fresco-like tone dominates the surface.

Exhibition:
Kunstverein in Hamburg, 09/04–13/06/2011