Contributed by Barbara A. MacAdam / Where to begin in exploring Charline von Heyl’s formidably eclectic and multifaceted show of new paintings at Petzel Gallery? She embarks on a visual discussion with her mostly nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American predecessors and counterparts in a tour de force. The show, cluttered yet precisely deployed, demands equally targeted unpacking, close looking, and an individual assessment of each painting on its own terms.
It is daunting to navigate the complexity of thinking and creating that we associate with this German-born and -raised artist, who currently spends her time between Marfa, Texas, and Brooklyn, New York. Like her German cohorts Sigmar Polke, Jörg Immendorff, Albert Oehlen, and Werner Büttner, von Heyl appears determined to dominate all prevailing modes of abstraction. But it’s important to realize that she is a proudly self-taught artist and not beholden to any one school or technique. It’s also interesting that while abstract painters today are mostly women, von Heyl’s sources here are largely men.
Her approach is archaeological. She excavates layer upon layer from the past to determine what she wants to say. Language is very important to her, especially the language of seeing and of feeling. In her notes, she references titles and literary inspirations as far-reaching as Clarice Lispector, Peter Handke, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. She draws on painterly sources as diverse as Hans Hofmann with his push-pull effects via opaque painted squares, and Carroll Dunham with his stylized and wittily cartoonish plays on nature. That’s not all. Implanted in her canvases are everything from Walt Disney characters to dense illuminated manuscripts.
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