Beschreibung:

Anselm Reyle Untitled 2006 mixed media on canvas, acrylic glass 119 x 79 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (302.3 x 201.9 x 21 cm.)
Provenance Galerie Almine Rech, Paris Private Collection, New York Catalogue Essay Anselm Reyle has incorporated nearly every categorical style into his uncategorizable oeuvre. Drawing inspiration from early abstract art, Reyle redirects the impulses of the expressionist into the third dimension, employing a variety of found and common household materials as his mediums. Reyle’s most celebrated works are undoubtedly his series of “foil paintings”, such as the present lot, in which he employs the use of acrylics and foil to maximize the viewer’s desire for a tactile experience while denying them any satisfaction. Suspended in their plexiglas boxes, his foil paintings force the observer to come to terms with the painting as an isolated object, forbidden to touch. Generating this sense of longing in the viewer, Reyle brings to mind our attraction to the kitsch of shine and our necessary inhibition to its seductive power if we are to maintain the progression of art. It is a perfect marriage of simple materials and lofty ideals. The present lot, Reyle’s Untitled from 2006, takes the familiar form of his foil paintings. Untitled towers almost ten feet in front of the observer, a goliath study in our tactile impulses. Trapped within the seven-inch thick box, his PVC foil is observable from all angles for the viewer’s maximum enticement, yet guarded by its Plexiglas enclosure. The canvas on which Reyle mounts his work functions simultaneously as a surface and a foundational structure, similar to the collage-style works of Reyle’s predecessors Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns But Reyle also adds a fourth dimension to his work, detailing various recessions within the PVC foil with black acrylic. In doing so, the viewer finds difficulty in differentiating the negative space of Reyle’s black paint from the reflective surfaces of his sculpture. The occasional sharp corners of the foil alternate with smooth curvatures elsewhere, begetting a surface pattern that resembles the drapery work of the past two millennia. Anselm Reyle’s work is as pleasurable for the eyes as it is frustrating for our outstretched fingers; a modern masterpiece that both attracts and rebukes us. Read More