Computer Paintings

“Finishing it is then the job of the human hand.”—Albert OehlenAlbert Oehlen’s (b. Krefeld, 1954; lives and works between Gais, La Palma, and Los Angeles) first Computer Paintings were made with the assistance of a notebook computer he had bought in 1990. The painter used it to sketch initial drawings he then transferred to the canvas in several series beginning in the 1990s. The constrained pixel aesthetic imposed by the technology with its aliasing and block effects became a consequential point of departure for a strand in his oeuvre that veers between cool austerity and a proliferating diversity of forms. It seems more relevant than ever in light of today’s debates around the use of artificial intelligence in art.The publication Computer Paintings accompanies the exhibition at Hamburger Kunsthalle and documents the eponymous body of work by Albert Oehlen, which has rarely been on public view. With an essay by the director Alexander Klar.