Untitled (Genua Riot), 2007

Dimensions: 200 x 276 x 4.2 cm

Physical Description: Oil on canvas

Inventory Number: 2256

Acquisition: Acquired in 2008 with funds from the Städelkomitee 21. Jahrhundert, property of Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.

Status: On display, lower level, Contemporary Art, room 25

Texts

About the Work

The name of the painting – ‘Untitled (Genua Riot)’ – is all there is to provide a vague idea of what this amorphous surface area represents. Structuring the pictorial frame are specks of light of different sizes and degrees of brightness. The painterly black in the foreground and the reflections on the wet asphalt combine into an oppressive nocturne – an abstract pictorial surface almost without form. It is in the dark peripheries of cities that the dark sides of our urban lives are revealed. We are captivated as much by the sensual allure of those images as we are by their picturesque abysses.