Untitled

Intersecting black lines spin a vast web of disorderly patterns on the surface of a white canvas. In 1992, painter Albert Oehlen bought one of the very first personal computers designed by Texes Instruments. He quickly saw the creative potential of its emerging graphic capabilities. This led to a vast series of drawings and paintings based on silkscreened digital images, known as "Computer-Paintings", to which Untitled belongs.

Over time, he added random marks, scratches, lines and spray paint by hand to the pixelated programmed motifs’ surface. This mixed practice is his way of wrestling back control from the algorithm’s robotic precision. "Normally,” he says, “the computer helps you do something you couldn't do otherwise.[...] Here, it’s the other way around. The artist corrects the pixels and in the end the computer image engenders a hand-painted picture.”

Untitled was first presented by the Pinault Collection at the 2018 "Cows by the Water" show at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.