CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM: A SELECTION OF WORKS FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

A collection of contemporary art exploring contemporary horizons of painting, photography, and the intersections between the two. From the poetic Abstract Expressionist inheritance of Jimmie Durham and Bjarne Melgaard to the cool architectural eye of Candida Höfer, the collection bears witness to a carefully curated spectrum of international postmodern imagery. The conceptual camerawork of Thomas Demand sits potently alongside photography translated to painting in the work of Koen van den Broek; the philosophical poise of acclaimed Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco offsets Kyle Thurman’s joyful alchemy of flower pigments. Highlighting the collection’s technological edge, Michael Riedel’s serigraphy investigates the inner workings of a Powerpoint slideshow, capturing the essence of the moment between clicks, while Darren Almond tracks time and space through a photographic performance piece. Similarly process-oriented is the tight sequential minimalism of Nathan Hylden, following strict cinematographic codes. The vibrant worlds of modern image production and reproduction are appraised in vivid variety, unified by a keen sense of pictorial power.

Untitled (2012) originates from a series of process-based paintings that reclaim the material, form and concept of commercially produced artificiality. Kyle Thurman eliminates the function of each object and reconfigures its primary components. The present work was developed using a distinctive painting technique in which the artist boiled dyed petals in water to reconstitute the artificial pigment from a bouquet of coloured daisies. The bright red-pink pattern is dispersed upon the raw canvas over the flowers themselves, which leave a stencil-like pattern alluding to industrial textiles. Thurman uses the flower as both the subject of the composition and the means of its execution, questioning the intent and result of the artificial dyed transformation of naturally beautiful flowers.