(Almost) white and (mostly) monochrome
Galerie Lange + Pult is pleased to present an exhibition with groups of work by two eminent conceptual painters, Karin Sander and Olivier Mosset. In their practice, Sander and Mosset adopt radically different approaches in the production of art, examining and subverting notions of authorship and originality which have long been central to the understanding of contemporary art.
For her Mailed Paintings, Karin Sander largely keeps out of the creation of her own work. Variously shaped canvases are stretched and primed, but from there, the work is literally put into somebody else’s hands: a courier service is ordered to pick up the unwrapped pieces for delivery to an exhibition venue (or successive stations of a traveling show). Back or front? It is now up to the courier where he wants to attach the transport documents and whether he uses any adhesive tape for the cargo. Also, the canvas soon loses its pristine surface. From the markings of fingers and hands and from other traces of handling an individual painting develops instead. The result is often surprising and always engaging, be it a minimalist arrangement of bold stripes in day-glo, or a painterly composition of
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(Almost) white and (mostly) monochrome
Galerie Lange + Pult is pleased to present an exhibition with groups of work by two eminent conceptual painters, Karin Sander and Olivier Mosset. In their practice, Sander and Mosset adopt radically different approaches in the production of art, examining and subverting notions of authorship and originality which have long been central to the understanding of contemporary art.
For her Mailed Paintings, Karin Sander largely keeps out of the creation of her own work. Variously shaped canvases are stretched and primed, but from there, the work is literally put into somebody else’s hands: a courier service is ordered to pick up the unwrapped pieces for delivery to an exhibition venue (or successive stations of a traveling show). Back or front? It is now up to the courier where he wants to attach the transport documents and whether he uses any adhesive tape for the cargo. Also, the canvas soon loses its pristine surface. From the markings of fingers and hands and from other traces of handling an individual painting develops instead. The result is often surprising and always engaging, be it a minimalist arrangement of bold stripes in day-glo, or a painterly composition of finely layered shades of grays and whites.
Between 1966 and 1974, Olivier Mosset painted the same painting for about 200 times: a black circular ring in the middle of a white square. In its constant repetition, the simple motif was a device to reduce the meaning and individuality of every painting — ironically, over the years it has become something of a trademark of Mosset himself. Along with a group of monochromes from recent years, a number of works from different periods of this “meta-series” offer the opportunity for further consideration and contemplation of the concept of the author and the aura of the original. And of course, like Karin Sanders’s, they are simply excitingly good paintings.
The Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim 2015 has been awarded to Olivier Mosset.
Hubert Bächler
