Softcover, 220 pages, 28 × 22 cm, German, English
„ES GIBT KEINEN KOLLEKTIVEN AUSWEG, DARAN HABE ICH NOCH NIE GEGLAUBT.“
Armin Boehm (b. Aachen, 1972; lives and works in Berlin) is one of the most prominent representational painters working today. He records his unsparing observations of the world in which we live in fascinatingly detail-rich paintings and collages. Toying with a continuity of confusion, he jauntily mixes elements from pop culture and art history, from architecture and literature, from the politics of the day and fantasy. If his early oeuvre had an air of gloom and mysticism, his works from the 2010s evince a shift toward flat expanses of lighter hues, often interspersed with small scraps of fabric. There are portraits in pastel tones and dreamy flower still lifes; most memorable perhaps are the haunting depictions of dramatic scenes: street fighting outside the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Bataclan massacre, a political orgy at Berghain. The grotesque figures and the creeping sense of dread bring the paintings of the German Expressionists to mind.
Surveying Boehm’s more recent oeuvre, the comprehensive monograph showcases works created between 2010 and 2018. It is rounded out by an essay by Jonathan Griffin and a conversation with the artist by Peter Gorschlüter.
