Albert Oehlen - Cezanne

Albert Oehlen’s Cezanne (2021) resonates with the long tradition of the bather in French art, a motif famously pursued by Paul Cézanne in works such as Three Bathers (1879–82). Cézanne’s painting, gifted by Henri Matisse to the Musée du Petit Palais, depicts nude figures in a wooded setting, framed by trees that both conceal and reveal the human form. The dialogue between figure and nature, structure and dissolution, would become foundational to modernism.

In Cezanne, Oehlen transforms this legacy through his own visual vocabulary. Rendered in gestural black and gray strokes, his solitary female figure moves in an abstracted landscape where trees and ground are only loosely indicated. Rather than faithfully re-creating Cézanne’s composition, Oehlen distills its spirit — the tension between legible form and painterly dissolution. The result is a spectral, dreamlike vision where the bather seems to hover between visibility and abstraction.

This work aligns with Oehlen’s broader engagement with the bather motif, as highlighted in his 2025 exhibition Endless Summer (Gagosian, Paris). Just as Cézanne once challenged academic conventions, Oehlen pushes the motif into new territory, layering homage with critical distance and experimental intensity.

Albert Oehlen, born in 1954, is a German contemporary artist known for his innovative and provocative approach to painting. Throughout his career, Oehlen has continually pushed the boundaries of traditional painting, exploring the possibilities of abstraction, figuration, and the intersections between different artistic styles and techniques. Albert Oehlen’s early artworks often challenged the conventional notions of beauty and aesthetics. Rejecting the polished finish of traditional painting, the painter embraced a raw and unrefined aesthetic, incorporating bold brushstrokes, smears, and gestural marks. This approach created a sense of dynamic energy and spontaneity in his paintings, reflecting his interest in the process of creation and the inherent imperfections of the artistic act. One of the defining characteristics of Oehlen’s practice is his playful and experimental approach to combining various artistic styles and techniques. He freely incorporates elements of abstraction, figuration, collage, and computer-generated imagery, creating visually striking compositions that defy categorization. This unique blending of styles allows Albert Oehlen to explore the tension between representation and abstraction, as well as challenge traditional hierarchies within the art world. Oehlen’s engagement with technology is another notable aspect of his artwork. He incorporates digital tools and computer-generated images into his paintings and fine art prints, merging traditional and contemporary modes of artistic production. This fusion of analog and digital aesthetics reflects his interest in the evolving relationship between technology and art, and the ways in which digital imagery can be recontextualized and reinterpreted within the realm of painting. Albert Oehlen’s artwork has been featured in numerous international solo exhibitions at prestigious museums, including the Serpentine Gallery in London, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the New Museum in New York and Kunsthalle Zürich, mumok in Vienna, and the Whitechapel Gallery in London, among others.