Interventionist Demonstration (Why-A-Duck?)

Charline von HeylWW-2013-125726

2013·Acrylic and spray paint on linen·211.1 × 494 cm (83 1/8 × 194 1/2 in.)

<p>“I push things to the point where I have no idea what’s going to happen,” painter Charline von Heyl has said. “I am interested in trying out something that might seem paradoxical and impossible . . . forcing them to work with grace and ease.” At 17 feet long, the elaborately titled <em>Interventionist Demonstration (Why-a-Duck?)</em> is her largest work to date. Part text and part painting, the canvas layers scrawled language and patterns over a field of loose, abstract gestures—like banners or bumper stickers tumbling and jostling across an atmospheric surface. The work generates a palpable energy, while harboring half-buried references to histories of the cartoon, graffiti, decorative painting, and expressive abstraction.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 2013
Medium: Acrylic and spray paint on linen
Dimensions: 211.1 × 494 cm (83 1/8 × 194 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Charline von Heyl

Artist

Charline von Heyl

Painting

Charline von Heyl is a German artist known for her endlessly layered, enigmatic paintings, drawings, and colleges filled with surprising juxtapositions and interactions. Von Heyl’s pursuit of abstraction is driven by a desire to invent something that has not yet been seen. Her canvases are as thoughtful and cerebral as they are aesthetically balanced, imbued with flashes of humor and poetic depth with an almost printed, two-dimensional quality. Despite its seeming spontaneity, her work is a result of an intensive painterly process where layered brushstrokes and powerful swaths of color clamor for space, creating unexpected collisions and moments of conflict.

Mainz, Germany

Full artist profile →