Fibreglass Scroll 2004

Albert Oehlen made this painting, Fibreglass Scroll, with some kind of paint, maybe oil or acrylic, and who knows what else, layering it, scraping it, and letting it drip. Looking at this grayscale painting, I see a zone of ambiguous forms, each shape alluding to something while resisting definition. It makes me think about that conversation painters have with themselves, a back-and-forth between intention and accident. I imagine Oehlen starting with something representational, maybe an image he found, and then pushing it, distorting it, until it teeters on the edge of abstraction. The way the paint is applied, thick in some areas, thin in others, creates a dynamic surface. That bold stroke cutting diagonally across the middle feels like a decisive gesture, a moment of pure intuition. It all reminds me of other painters like Richter, maybe even de Kooning, artists who aren't afraid to embrace the messy, the unresolved. It all just goes to show that painting is an ongoing investigation, a constant questioning of what a picture can be.