Albert Oehlen began the Computer Paintings in 1990, after the purchase of his first laptop computer. The artist created a couple of functional motifs within four years using a computer program on his laptop and continued to use variations of these motifs until he finished working on the series in 2008.
Where his earlier paintings employ a playful twist on historical subjects and methods of painting, the Computer Paintings reveal abstract images that were created with the use of a foreign tool. The limitations of computer programs at this time provoked Oehlen to finish and smooth out the stair-cased and highly pixilated lines by hand in order to produce a more desirable computer picture. The limitations he experienced with the computer program heightened a sense of irony; albeit new technology, computers in the early 1990’s were imperfect and required a human hand to enhance its final product. Meanwhile, the human hand destroys any authenticity of the term “Computer Paintings.”
2009
- from Skarstedt Gallery, NY
