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拍品專文
Dirk Skreber's Untitled exudes a colourful silence. This monumental landscape appears to show houses being rebuilt in the wake of a flood - this reconstruction marks a change from his usual subject matter of scenes of actual natural devastation. There is a strange and surreal stillness to this picture, an eeriness that is increased by the disjointedness and detachment of this seemingly infinite hinterland.
Untitled shows Skreber consciously subverting the classic tradition of monumental history painting as a genre, not least by putting the visual inventory of painterly techniques both of the Academicians and of the Abstract Expressionists to new, strange and occasionally incongruous use. Untitled reveals itself as a painting where the apparent contradictions between abstract and figurative art merge in the creation of a harmonious composition. The inclusion of Pollockian 'drips', as well as the fine use of expressionistic brushstrokes which verge on abstraction, plays havoc with the traditional categorisations of art. These abstract elements are not only on the surface, but also disrupt the fabric and subject matter of Untitled, as is clearly visible in the houses, which appear to be melting into the sky. In fact, Skreber has turned the painting upside down and allowed the paint to flow, creating a strange, Dalì-esque liquidity in the scene. This all stands in stark contrast to the geometric and figurative depiction of the houses and wooden panels. In this way, Skreber's jarring combination of luminous colours and pure figuration creats an image made strange, yet filled with clarity and beauty. Skreber himself has discussed his paintings in relation to their surfaces: "With me painting is a tough process. It flows, that slow building up of ideas on canvas produces both multi-layered and also varied world[s] of perception." (Dirk Skreber, quoted in D. Sobel, Dirk Skreber: IT ROCKS US SO HARD, Aspen 2004, p.24.)
Untitled shows Skreber consciously subverting the classic tradition of monumental history painting as a genre, not least by putting the visual inventory of painterly techniques both of the Academicians and of the Abstract Expressionists to new, strange and occasionally incongruous use. Untitled reveals itself as a painting where the apparent contradictions between abstract and figurative art merge in the creation of a harmonious composition. The inclusion of Pollockian 'drips', as well as the fine use of expressionistic brushstrokes which verge on abstraction, plays havoc with the traditional categorisations of art. These abstract elements are not only on the surface, but also disrupt the fabric and subject matter of Untitled, as is clearly visible in the houses, which appear to be melting into the sky. In fact, Skreber has turned the painting upside down and allowed the paint to flow, creating a strange, Dalì-esque liquidity in the scene. This all stands in stark contrast to the geometric and figurative depiction of the houses and wooden panels. In this way, Skreber's jarring combination of luminous colours and pure figuration creats an image made strange, yet filled with clarity and beauty. Skreber himself has discussed his paintings in relation to their surfaces: "With me painting is a tough process. It flows, that slow building up of ideas on canvas produces both multi-layered and also varied world[s] of perception." (Dirk Skreber, quoted in D. Sobel, Dirk Skreber: IT ROCKS US SO HARD, Aspen 2004, p.24.)