TAL R artist's work  |  about the artist  |  biography  |  articles  |  other resources

Articles about Tal R

THE PAINTER AS DJ

Tal R paints readily understandable narratives, sampling miscellaneous contexts without making the stories overly complex or intellectual. The content of the pictures frequently rests quite literally on a solid foundation, as is the case with the work Blocked Door.

The top and bottom of the painting provide the frame for the story taking place at the centre of the picture while also informing of Tal R's modus operandi. Typically the bottom is wider and wilder than the upper bar which Tal R utilises to finish the painting. The bottom, however, functions as the foundation of the story and the picture emerging from the chaos of colours, blots and conspicuous brushstrokes. The subjects in the middle can include anything from messy rooms to car races and landscapes.

Tal R belongs to the group of artists who graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the 1990s. Common to this generation of painters is a focus on expressive and painterly qualities which they combine with personal and sometimes banal stories.

The painting of the 1990s starkly contrasts the so-called Wild painting that characterised the 1980s in Denmark. This style found the artists in a consciously expressionist style concerned with intellectual and theoretical discussions, as opposed to the 'small' and intimate stories of the '90s generation. INSPIRED BY GARBAGE Tal R's paintings spring from stories, a figure or an object that he allows to develop and transform into a more complicated expression. He uses the idea of a visual dustbin as an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Physically the dustbin is placed in the painting's lower half where it enters the painting, populating it with a multitude of colours and shapes. There is no hierarchy to Tal R's art; everything can be and is shown, no subject is too pedestrian, too revealing or too banal.

His unpretentious approach to art characterises his work which is chaotic, humorous and full of movement. After many artists wrote off the medium, he has added new energy and possibilities to painting in terms of both expression and content.

Painting is not the only medium used by Tal R - he also uses photography, drawings, mobiles and total installations. Graffiti, children's drawings and cartoons form the basis for his paintings, the expression of which is an extension of the CoBrA movement and the humorous Fluxus happenings of the 1960's. Read the entire article Source: (www.arken.dk)

Lord Madras, lithograph series 2001

The art of Tal R, a Danish painter and environmental artist, defies concepts and definition. His work tests the viewers' desire to recognise objects and things. Tal R's works are rich in themes that remotely remind one of something - but one cannot tell exactly what. Born in Israel in 1967, Tal R takes his themes from everyday life. He does not follow the traditions of art history too strictly and according to his own words, he rarely goes to art museums. His inspiration comes from the diversity of the world around him. Television programmes, horror films, home decoration objects and encounters with neighbours all find their way into his art. He collects in his plastic bags discarded stuff produced by the consumer culture, and gives it a new lease on life as part of an artwork. In art literature Tal R has been treated more as a DJ or a 'soup man' rather than a painter in the traditional sense. He throws together ingredients from here and there and aims to achieve a good mix. In his experimental cuisine, a childlike 'finger-paint' method is often used to season shocking meanings and hidden pictures. Read the entire article Source: (www.kiasma.fi)

Tal R: Victoria Miro Gallery - London - mixed-media works in artist's London solo debut

ArtForum, Oct, 2003 by Martin Herbert Tal R has a distinctive way of explaining his paintings. "I constantly have this hot-pot boiling and I throw all kinds of material into it," he told an interviewer some time ago. More recently: "I do painting a bit like people make a lunch box." Add the fact that his London solo debut comprising thirteen bright and unruly mixed-media works, four embroidered cloth banners, and an installation of thirty-two drawings was titled "Lords of Kolbojnik" (the latter word being kibbutz slang for the rubbish left over after a heavy meal), and it's hard not to wonder, sometimes, whether the Israeli-born, Copenhagen-based artist hasn't missed his vocation. Read the entire article Source: (www.findarticles.com)

back to top

Copyright 2003-2009 © The Saatchi Gallery : London Contemporary Art Gallery