DIRK SKREBER (b. 1961) UNTITLED oil on fabri

Provenance
Andrea Rosen Gallery, NEW YORK

Exhibited
NEW YORK, Andrea Rosen Gallery, NOW IS A GOOD TIME, January 23-February 21, 2004

It can be said that Dirk Skreber embodies the essence of what it is to be a contemporary painter working within the ever-changing, hyper-accelerated realm of the Cutting Edge: irrepressible, ground-breaking, off-beat, unexpected, au courant, knowledgeable, savvy. The incorporation of nconventional media into his works pushes the boundaries of contemporary art further and further with each successive work that he completes. His rate and degree of progression are not, however, at the cost of severing all ties with tradition. His manipulation and combination of media is without a doubt contemporary in nature, but his compositional elements do illustrate an astute knowledge of the history of his chosen craft. His knowledge of and connection to the past is evident in his landscape paintings as well as his figural works.

In 2004, the Andrea Rosen Gallery mounted an exhibition, curated by Dean Valentine, entitled NOW IS A GOOD TIME. Flowers were the central theme around which this exhibition was structured and works by Karen Kilimnik, Elizabeth Peyton and John Currin were exhibited along with the present lot. Valentine states, "I found it thrilling…that so many artists were painting antique genres, among them what is arguably the most banal one in the world: flower painting. And they're painting these flowers not as any kind of ironic commentary on commodification or globalism, but rather because they are looking for a way to speak authentically–to speak about beauty and desire and death. It's something of a Romantic time–a moment when younger artists especially are privileging feeling over analysis, the handcrafted over the mechanical, and sincerity over irony."

In the present lot, UNTITLED, 2004, Skreber has chosen to depict a subject that does have a strong connection to romantic ideals of a bygone era of painting the female form. In true Skreber fashion he has taken it to another level. The female subject of the painting has been completely erased leaving behind only botanical remnants of clothing and other bodily accoutrements. Therealistic rendering and colorations of the various floral arrangements are in stark contrast to the bold linear bands of the gray, orange and black that comprise the fabric on which they are painted. They appear to be floating, suspended in space and at the same time projected off the fabric in direct confrontation with the viewer. Skreber explains, "… with me painting is a tough process. It flows, that slow build-up of ideas on the canvas produces both multi-layered and also varied world[s] of perception" (Dirk Skreber quoted in D. Sobel, DIRK SKREBER: IT ROCKS US SO HARD,ASPEN,2004, p. 24).

Varied worlds of perception is a phrase that could perhaps best describe the entire body of work created by Dirk Skreber thus far. By bringing to fruition ideas spawned within the depths of his boundless fecund imagination he does not cease to continually astound and amaze us quenching the public's insatiable thirst for the new, the present lot being no exception.