This catalogue displays in large-formatted, excellently printed plates eight paintings of a group of works which were created on La Palma in 1996 and which, previous to the exhibition in Luckenwalde, were only displayed one time, namely in 1997 in the Kunsthalle Basel.

“When Oehlen assigns pictures titles such as Pity, Monk and Nun, Spirit and Time, tomorrow—questionable, (in the) Lachrymatory Sac, Copper Acetate, Stellar Refuse and Mishandling of the Blues to a series of eight monumentally formatted rhythm-boxes, possibly in a hubristic access of Romantic enthusiasm, then irony undoubtedly flickers forth from behind this decision: may the academic picture-interpreter become once and for all muddled in the labyrinth of his own helpless attempts at explanation.

In the end, painting—a gesture that cannot be outsmarted, that preserves the seeking of the painter’s hand, that is impenetrable like a jungle—remains a rock over which Stoic interpretation should stumble.” — Christoph Tannert

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In collaboration with Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin