ADRIAN GHENIE - CLUJ.RO / BERLIN.DE

01 FEBRUARY 2010

Written by ALEXANDER CONNER

pie fight study 2 Adrian Ghenie [2008] Oil on canvas                 
 

Adrian Ghenie is an artist whose work I have lusted over for three years. I do not know Mr. Ghenie. I have never had the privilege of seeing his work in person. However, when I first saw it as an exhibition announcement in a magazine, I was automatically hooked. Like other artists whose work I feel drawn to, he tends to manifest the quotidian anecdote, and through it, a sense of cathartic intersubjective meaning with the viewer. However, his images have a rare quality that other artist's images in this milieu do not; anyone can be immediately drawn in. Every time I show Mr. Ghenie's work to other people there is an noticeable silence as they start stalking his vision, image by image.
 

dada is dead Adrian Ghenie [2009] Acrylic and collage on paper                 
 

I am not sure if his style is aided by being photographed, compressed and thrown up onto a website or into a publication, but I doubt it. It seems to me that he knows paint. As far as composition, there is a certain disturbing placidity in how he orients figures and environments in his work. Most focal points are central to his composition. Like Baselitz he seems prone to sometimes acting as the guillotine and lopping off heads. Like Bacon he makes his scenes undulate with depth of color by being intelligent in the way he obliterates form through dragging something (a brush, a piece of metal or wood, his hand?) across the canvas.
 

crawl under the desk Adrian Ghenie [2007] Oil on canvas                 
 

Mr. Ghenie is only a little over 40 years of age, and although I don't mean to remind the artist of how many seasons have passed throughout his life should he ever read this, the viewer must be aware in case they feel the propensity to attribute his work to an old master. He's Hopper on steroids, using the casual situation to divulge obsequious secrets of context. He's a little bit of the skewed photo-realistic depth of Caravaggio. But above all, he's himself. He has a fever, and I'd be keen to be in his company with a sore throat.

Study for Nickelodeon Adrian Ghenie [2008] Oil on canvas                 

Adrian Ghenie CV: http://www.plan-b.ro/galeria_files/cv_ghenie.pdf