About the Work
From December 1985 to March 1986, Albert Oehlen travelled in Brazil with Martin Kippenberger. 'German in Rio' refers to this journey, and also to that great German painter who likes to depict eagles upside down: Georg Baselitz. Whereas the generation before the so-called Junge Wilde (Wild Youth) still had specific topics and narratives, Oehlen's picture dissolves into irony and innuendo. With a vehement pluralism of style and rapid, only seemingly dilettantish brushwork, 'Bad Painting' radically shatters once and for all the ideals of classical panel painting. The painterly openness is also reflected in terms of content. Composed of four separate canvases which have been put together, the painting turns 'sense' and 'meaning' into decidedly flexible categories, which Oehlen hands over to the viewer with tremendous aesthetic added value.
