Tauba Auerbach

Standard (Oslo), Oslo
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2010 

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear to the front turning edges of the canvas, where some light pigment loss is apparent when examined closely. Under ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
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“I probably think about higher spatial dimensions more than any other aspect of my practice. At the root of my interest is the question of what consciousness is: what it's made of and what its limitations might be. As creatures that operate in three dimensions, what capacity do we have to conceive of a dimension that's beyond, or even coiled within, the space that we experience?” Tauba Auerbach

Tauba Auerbach's sensational Fold paintings have received widespread critical acclaim since their debut in 2009. Minimal and abstract yet immediately recognizable in their distinctive luminosity and delicately textured surfaces, the Fold paintings are rapturing in their elegant beauty as well as the psychological intrigue and optical manipulations central to Auerbach’s artistic approach and practice. The present work, Untitled (Fold), glows with iridescent hues characterized by a harmonious mixture of golden, canary yellow, and green tones, exemplary of the artist's fixation with tetrachromatic palettes. The abstract patterns that appear as three-dimensional folds and creases are in fact optical illusions deftly crafted by the artist, recently cemented as the defining feature of Auerbach’s enchanting and greatly marveled paintings.

It is difficult not to be drawn in by the rich surface and suggestive textures of Untitled (Fold), and the realization that such voluminous and undulating folds are in fact a perfectly flat surface, simply illuminates the work as a masterpiece of Contemporary trompe-l’oeil. Auerbach’s method consists of first pressing and folding the canvas, then restretching it after a network of impressions have been achieved. The raw canvas is then sprayed with industrial paint, often of a single dominant hue with metallic tones, at several angles that ultimately result in a fascinating composition of tonal patterns that give off the optical illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. All Fold paintings have a distinctive pattern and chromatic scheme systematically arranged and paired by the artist. 

Proficient in art, math and physics as well as linguistics, Auerbach has focused her artistic output on the exploration of spatial dimensions and perception. Through painting patterns, symmetry and symbols, the artist attempts to reveal new dimensional richness both within and beyond the limits of perception. According to the artist, the disciplines of art, science, math and language are interconnected in that they ultimately converge into one unifying field in how they shape human perception and experience of the world – affecting not only our spatial perception but also our color recognition. Topology, the mathematical study of shapes, has long been a preoccupation of Auerbach, prompting the artist to formulate a system of formulas and methods aimed at challenging conventional logic and perceptions of space. As evidenced in Untitled (Fold), the artist successfully stretches our limits of perception by essentially obliterating any difference between two and three dimensional fields.

Auerbach’s interest in flatness, depth and the unsettled nature of spatial experience resonates with conceptual works of masters from earlier generations. When famed Italian conceptual artist Rudolf Stingel covered all the walls and floors of the entire exhibition space of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice with carpets and paintings during the city’s Biennale in 2013, the artist created a complex interplay between two-dimensional mediums and three-dimensional spaces, transforming what were once mere flat surfaces into three-dimensional installations. Such expansion of a painting’s physical borders translates to Auerbach’s paintings in the optical illusions she creates–placing these objects in a paradoxical state somewhere between volume and flatness and reality and manipulation. Such conflation of space, the interplay between flat surface and three-dimensionality, further recalls the works of Lucio Fontana and his famous tagli paintings. By puncturing his canvases with holes and slashes, Fontana essentially gives his flat images a sculpted quality that ultimately elevates the work to a realm hovering between painting and sculpture, image and object with both two- and three-dimensional qualities.

The allure of Auerbach’s paintings reside in their ability to challenge our perception, expectation and logic, ultimately inspired by the artist’s desire to deconstruct existing assumptions. Her works, as evidenced in Untitled (Fold), are wondrous mosaics of colors that are at once both cerebral and sensual. As Auerbach herself proclaims, “I think I always make work about logic in some way. Taking things that are assumed to be linear and making them double back on themselves or knotting them up…posing questions to myself about the way I was taught to think and reason. Posing questions about the structure of a question. For a long time, language was sort of the medium I was using to try these things out, but now I’m working almost entirely abstractly. There is less opportunity to take this work literally, and I think that shifts the focus of inquiry onto the viewer in a good way.”