Albert Oehlen: Endless Summer

This book was published on the occasion of Albert Oehlen: Endless Summer at Gagosian and Galerie Max Hetzler in Paris. The exhibition featured new paintings that explore the theme of the bather, a motif deeply embedded in French art history that captivated such artists as Paul Cezanne, Édouard Manet, and Pablo Picasso. In some of Oehlen’s variations on a female nude, the subject is clearly legible, while in others it dissolves into gesture, shifting the project between representation and abstraction.

The publication intersperses reproductions of the twenty-eight works in the exhibition with images of historical works that demonstrate the prominence of the bather as a muse. It also includes an illustrated essay by art historian Jean-Pierre Criqui that explores the bather’s route through art history and an interview between Oehlen and writer Max Dax about the mordant filmic portrayals of painters and painting in Oehlen’s film practice.