Rudolf Stingel
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Stingel is an artist based in New York
.
Stingel was born in Meran. His work engages the audience in dialogue about their perception of art and uses Conceptual
painting
and installations
to explore the process of creation. Using readily available materials such as styrofoam, carpet, and cast polyurethane, Stingel creates art based upon an underlying conceptual framework and challenges contemporary notions about painting. The surfaces of his two-dimensional works are characteristically carved out, imprinted or indented, visibly evidencing the artist’s alteration of industrial matter. He lives in New York and Bolzano, Italy.
are then placed over the surface of the canvas and silver paint is added using a spray gun. Finally, the gauze is removed, resulting in a richly textured surface. For his works on paper Stingel is known for a technique of applying oil paint and/or enamel
onto canvas or paper through a tulle
screen. At the Venice Biennale
in 1989, he published an illustrated “do-it-yourself” manual in English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Japanese, 'Instructions, Istruzioni, Anleitung...', outlining the equipment and procedure that would enable anyone to create one of his paintings. In so doing, he suggests that everyone could produce a work of abstraction by following a simple set of instructions.
In the early 1990s Stingel started his inquiry into the relationship between painting and space by developing a series of installations that covered the walls and floors of exhibition spaces with monochrome or black and white carpets, transforming the architecture into a painting. In 1993, he exhibited a huge plush orange carpet glued to the wall at the Venice Biennale
. In his site-specific Plan B (2004), he covered the entire floors of Grand Central Terminal
’s Vanderbilt Hall and the Walker Art Center
with an industrially-printed pink and blue floral carpet. Simultaneously in Frankfurt am Main, Stingel completely resurfaced one of the rooms of the Museum für Moderne Kunst
– walls, columns and floor – with bright red and silver insulation panels printed with a traditional damask wallpaper motif. In other installations, he covered the walls with silver metallic Celotex insulation board and invited visitors to mark them as they wished: at the 2003 Venice Biennale
Stingel created a silver room inside the Italian pavilion. As part of his 2007 mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
and at the Whitney Museum of American Art
, the artist covered the gallery walls with metallic Celotex insulation board and invited visitors to draw, write and make imprints on the surface of the softly reflective silver panelling, effectively removing artistic privilege from the mark of the individual and handing it over to the collective gestures of thousands of viewers. His paintings from that period are often are created through a performative process in which Stingel covers the entire floor of his studio with Styrofoam
and then walks across the thick surface in boots dipped in lacquer thinner. The Styrofoam melts with each of Stingel’s steps leaving behind only the markings of a footprint. The final work is then arranged in single, double or as in this case a monumentous four panels taken from the much larger field of panels that covered the entire studio floor.
Starting with his portrait of gallerist Paula Cooper
(Untitled, 2005), Stingel has been embarking on a series of paintings based on photographic portraits, all taken by other photographers (e.g. Robert Mapplethorpe
). Stingel’s next engagement with photography arrived as a series of black-and-white self-portraits painted in 2006 [“Untitled (After Sam),” 2005-06], all painted after photographs taken by the artist Sam Samore
. They are executed in a gray-scale palette to match black and white photos. He depicted himself in a melancholy state, a mid-life crisis, and once as a much younger man dressed in an army uniform.
Stingel has collaborated with fellow artist Urs Fischer
on several occasions.
s. His work was the subject of a mid-career retrospective called Rudolf Stingel and was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
. It was exhibited at the MCA and at the Whitney Museum of American Art
, New York, in 2007. In his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, Stingel lined the MCA's three-story atrium space, and a gallery space at the Whitney, with an aluminum-faced installation and suspended an ornate chandelier from the ceiling. The public was invited to scratch messages and images into the soft walls.
Neue Nationalgalerie
, Berlin, Germany
2007
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Whitney Museum of American Art
2006
Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Day for Night: Whitney Biennial 2006, New York
Where are we going? (Works from the Collection of Francois Pinault), curated by Alison
Gingeras, Palazzo Grassi
, Venice
2005
EURAC tower, Bolzano, Italy
2004
Love/Hate: from Magritte to Cattelan, Masterpieces from the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago
Sadie Coles HQ, London
Museum für Moderne Kunst
, Frankfurt
2002
Georg Kargl Galerie, Wien
Paula Cooper Gallery
, New York
1996
SCAI, The Bathhouse, Tokyo
1995
Art & Public, Geneva
1991
Daniel Newburg Gallery, New York
Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris
. Between February 2007 and March 2009, 56 of his works appeared at auction -- more than double the quantity offered over the entire previous decade.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Stingel was born in Meran. His work engages the audience in dialogue about their perception of art and uses Conceptual
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
to explore the process of creation. Using readily available materials such as styrofoam, carpet, and cast polyurethane, Stingel creates art based upon an underlying conceptual framework and challenges contemporary notions about painting. The surfaces of his two-dimensional works are characteristically carved out, imprinted or indented, visibly evidencing the artist’s alteration of industrial matter. He lives in New York and Bolzano, Italy.
Work
Stingel became first recognised in the late 1980s for his monochromatic works, silvery paintings with undertones of red, yellow or blue from 1987 to 1994. Stingel’s later abstract paintings from the 1990s consist of oils in pure, brilliant colors exuberantly splayed, dripped, pressed, and pulled across a black field. The works begin with the application of a thick layer of paint in a particular colour to the canvas. Pieces of gauzeGauze
Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave.-Uses and types:Gauze was originally made of silk and was used for clothing. It is now used for many different things, including gauze sponges for medical purposes. When used as a medical dressing, gauze is generally made of cotton...
are then placed over the surface of the canvas and silver paint is added using a spray gun. Finally, the gauze is removed, resulting in a richly textured surface. For his works on paper Stingel is known for a technique of applying oil paint and/or enamel
Enamel paint
Enamel paint is paint that air dries to a hard, usually glossy, finish, used for coating surfaces that are outdoors or otherwise subject to hard wear or variations in temperature; it should not be confused with decorated objects in "painted enamel", where vitreous enamel is applied with brushes and...
onto canvas or paper through a tulle
Tulle
Tulle is a commune and capital of the Corrèze department in the Limousin region in central France. It is also the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle...
screen. At the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
in 1989, he published an illustrated “do-it-yourself” manual in English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Japanese, 'Instructions, Istruzioni, Anleitung...', outlining the equipment and procedure that would enable anyone to create one of his paintings. In so doing, he suggests that everyone could produce a work of abstraction by following a simple set of instructions.
In the early 1990s Stingel started his inquiry into the relationship between painting and space by developing a series of installations that covered the walls and floors of exhibition spaces with monochrome or black and white carpets, transforming the architecture into a painting. In 1993, he exhibited a huge plush orange carpet glued to the wall at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. In his site-specific Plan B (2004), he covered the entire floors of Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
’s Vanderbilt Hall and the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
with an industrially-printed pink and blue floral carpet. Simultaneously in Frankfurt am Main, Stingel completely resurfaced one of the rooms of the Museum für Moderne Kunst
Museum für Moderne Kunst
The Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1981. The museum was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein. Because of its triangular shape, it is called "piece of cake"....
– walls, columns and floor – with bright red and silver insulation panels printed with a traditional damask wallpaper motif. In other installations, he covered the walls with silver metallic Celotex insulation board and invited visitors to mark them as they wished: at the 2003 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
Stingel created a silver room inside the Italian pavilion. As part of his 2007 mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
and at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, the artist covered the gallery walls with metallic Celotex insulation board and invited visitors to draw, write and make imprints on the surface of the softly reflective silver panelling, effectively removing artistic privilege from the mark of the individual and handing it over to the collective gestures of thousands of viewers. His paintings from that period are often are created through a performative process in which Stingel covers the entire floor of his studio with Styrofoam
Styrofoam
Styrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...
and then walks across the thick surface in boots dipped in lacquer thinner. The Styrofoam melts with each of Stingel’s steps leaving behind only the markings of a footprint. The final work is then arranged in single, double or as in this case a monumentous four panels taken from the much larger field of panels that covered the entire studio floor.
Starting with his portrait of gallerist Paula Cooper
Paula Cooper Gallery
The Paula Cooper Gallery is an art gallery in New York City founded in 1968.The gallery is primarily known for the Minimalist and Conceptual artists it has represented and whose careers it helped launch. Such artists include: Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Lynda Benglis, Mark di Suvero, Donald...
(Untitled, 2005), Stingel has been embarking on a series of paintings based on photographic portraits, all taken by other photographers (e.g. Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
). Stingel’s next engagement with photography arrived as a series of black-and-white self-portraits painted in 2006 [“Untitled (After Sam),” 2005-06], all painted after photographs taken by the artist Sam Samore
Sam Samore
Sam Samore is an American artist. His work is concerned with an exploration of privacy and myth in contemporary society. He has made numerous works which appropriate photo-techniques typically used by private detectives.-References:...
. They are executed in a gray-scale palette to match black and white photos. He depicted himself in a melancholy state, a mid-life crisis, and once as a much younger man dressed in an army uniform.
Stingel has collaborated with fellow artist Urs Fischer
Urs Fischer
Urs Fischer is a Swiss contemporary artist living in New York.Fischer’s installations and sculptures have been exhibited in some group exhibitions and biennales worldwide, including Manifesta 3 and the Venice Biennale -External links:* * * *...
on several occasions.
Exhibitions
Stingel has participated in the 1999 and 2003 Venice BiennaleVenice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
s. His work was the subject of a mid-career retrospective called Rudolf Stingel and was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
. It was exhibited at the MCA and at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, New York, in 2007. In his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, Stingel lined the MCA's three-story atrium space, and a gallery space at the Whitney, with an aluminum-faced installation and suspended an ornate chandelier from the ceiling. The public was invited to scratch messages and images into the soft walls.
Selected exhibitions
2010Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin...
, Berlin, Germany
2007
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
2006
Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Day for Night: Whitney Biennial 2006, New York
Where are we going? (Works from the Collection of Francois Pinault), curated by Alison
Gingeras, Palazzo Grassi
Palazzo Grassi
Palazzo Grassi is an edifice in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice, northern Italy...
, Venice
2005
EURAC tower, Bolzano, Italy
2004
Love/Hate: from Magritte to Cattelan, Masterpieces from the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago
Sadie Coles HQ, London
Museum für Moderne Kunst
Museum für Moderne Kunst
The Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1981. The museum was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein. Because of its triangular shape, it is called "piece of cake"....
, Frankfurt
2002
Georg Kargl Galerie, Wien
Paula Cooper Gallery
Paula Cooper Gallery
The Paula Cooper Gallery is an art gallery in New York City founded in 1968.The gallery is primarily known for the Minimalist and Conceptual artists it has represented and whose careers it helped launch. Such artists include: Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Lynda Benglis, Mark di Suvero, Donald...
, New York
1996
SCAI, The Bathhouse, Tokyo
1995
Art & Public, Geneva
1991
Daniel Newburg Gallery, New York
Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris
Art market
Stingel’s prices skyrocketed after his 2007 show at the Whitney Museum in New York, until a big Styrofoam board fetched $1.9 million at Phillips de Pury & CompanyPhillips de Pury & Company
Phillips de Pury & Company is an auction house and art dealership, with offices in London, New York, Geneva, Berlin, Brussels, Los Angeles, Milan, Munich and Paris. Phillips conducts auctions in New York, London and Geneva in the areas of Contemporary Art, Photography, 20-21st Century Design, Art...
. Between February 2007 and March 2009, 56 of his works appeared at auction -- more than double the quantity offered over the entire previous decade.
External links
- Jerry Saltz, The Icon and the Iconoclast, ArtNet.com
- Rudolf Stingel on ArtNet.com
- Michelle Grabner, Rudolf Stingel at MCA Chicago, Friexe.com
- Images, biography, texts from the Saatchi Gallery