Rudolf Stingel

Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Colour: The colour in the printed catalogue is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is less purple and the image fails to convey the iridescent quality of the surface apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals a few networks of hairline cracks in isolated places predominantly towards the lower half of the composition. There is a circular network of cracks to the centre left of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals a diagonal line to the centre of the lower left quadrant that fluoresces darker.
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Rudolf Stingel’s art challenges concepts of authenticity, authorship and modes of production by reconsidering the traditional medium of painting. His work is based upon an underlying conceptual framework which engages the audience in a dialogue about the process of creation. Executed in 1996, Untitled encapsulates several of the most prominent characteristics of Stingel’s entire artistic practice. Forming a part of his signature Silver Paintings series, this piece highlights qualities such as colour, texture, gesture and surface in a way that offers pure and immediate delectation.

The painterly façade of Untitled is formed of a silver pigment that shimmers with a range of ineffable effects, rippling through a hazy mist to a silky satin-like appearance. The veil of silver aesthetically ensnares the viewer into what is a conceptually rich and challenging piece. In 1989, to coincide with his exhibition at Massimo de Carlo, Stingel confounded traditional expectations by publishing a detailed step-by-step handbook, Instructions, which illustrated the exact processes used to create his paintings. The instructions begin with an application of thick paint in a particular colour which is then overlaid with pieces of gauze. A layer of silver paint is then sprayed over the canvas, seeping through the gauze which acts almost as a filter or a mask. When the gauze is removed the result is a richly textured surface that alludes to the presence of a materiality which has since disappeared. These instructions challenge the very idea of the artist as creator by enabling the reader to replicate Stingel's exact methods, much like an Andy Warhol Do It Yourself painting, and thus disrupting the persistent myth of the artist as genius.

Ironically, however, Stingel has in reality created an inimitable art work; not only by using the gauze to articulate paint across the plane of the canvas ensuring a unique work is created each time, but also by producing his Instructions which shift his paintings into a more conceptual territory. In a review of Stingel’s 2007 exhibition at the Whitney Museum, Roberta Smith has suggested that Stingel’s work touches upon the notion of “empty beauty” by suggesting that if an artwork is void of any conceptual foundation then it is not beautiful in any sustained way. Stingel’s real triumph, however, was noted by the curator of his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Francesco Bonami who stated that “by disrupting painting’s assumption of material, process, and placement, Stingel not only bursts open the conventions of painting, but creates unique ways of thinking about the medium and its reception” (Francesco Bonami quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Rudolf Stingel, 2007, p. 10).

Throughout Stingel’s career he has avoided association with any one specific artistic movement, employing a host of processes, textures and materials to oscillate between the faculties of abstraction and figuration. His practice is rooted in the questioning of the traditional medium of painting, choosing to see a painting as a flat surface that radiates visual power. In this way his work can be linked to European ZERO artists such as Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni, as well as colour field painters such as Ellsworth Kelly and Barnett Newman. However, a key defining characteristic of Stingel’s work is his attempt to demystify his technique and the aura enshrouding his art. It is a credit to his artistic skill that Stingel has managed to demystify the process of art through the guise of a luminescent veil which exudes an ethereal quality through its formal beauty. Untitled of 1996 is thus testament to this balance of beauty and idea, as it is both the product of a prescribed process and a wonderfully unique creation.