Black Rationality appropriates the tones and equestrian subject of historical painting and re-renders them as a punk-ethic effigy. The skeletons of the horses provide a Picasso-like motif. Seemingly two paintings in one, Black Rationality is a painting in conflict. Albert Oehlen sets up the flatness of an abstract expressionist ground; the figures are placed as a separate layer creating an illusion of perspective.

In an optical contention between surface and depth, Albert Oehlen exposes the limitations of both abstraction and representation to denounce and eulogise artistic tradition. In a literal depiction of a graveyard, Albert Oehlen presents painting as a hallowed myth, resonant beyond its expiration.