A palimpsest of paintings
What most likely was a reaction to the prevalence of conceptual art led to a full-scale revival of painting that lasted throughout the 1980s. Initially expressed through neo-expressionism in Germany and transanvanguardia in Italy, the return to painting soon spread to the United States and gave rise to a tendency for abstraction seen in movements such as Neo-Geo and Neo-abstraction. Although more than a decade has elapsed since then, the pluralist and retrospective, postmodern approach that paved the way for developments at the time encouraged the positive response to painting that endures to our day. Painting is no longer outmoded; what is, is the question of whether it is or not. It is against this background that one can begin to approach the work of German-born, New York-based painter Charline von Heyl, whose large-format abstract compositions were recently shown at her one-woman show at the Eleni Koronaiou Gallery in Athens. Before moving to New York in the early 1990s (where she currently teaches at Columbia University), von Heyl studied art in Hamburg under Joerg Immendorf, one of the «new wild ones» as the German neo-expressionists are also known. Partly derived from this tradition, von Heyl’s paintings also show some resemblance to the work of abstract expressionists (an art critic has compared her work with the 1930s abstract creations of Arshile Gorky, a forerunner of the abstract expressionists). But it shares neither the brutality and tendency for figuration typical of the German-born movement, nor the solemnity and grandiosity of abstract expressionism. Von Heyl’s work eludes categorization and it does so upon a first viewing. Her paintings create alternating and often contrasting impressions. They momentarily hint, for example, at something specific and recognizable only to return to pure form and abstraction. The impression of depth that certain segments of her paintings give is annulled by a surface quality in others. Filled with restless energy and movement, they are also curiously soothing. Playful and erratic, they are also calm and composed. These contrasts are largely the effect of a distinctive work process in which von Heyl builds one paint layer upon the other, using an impressive variety of styles and painterly gestures. Because each layer produces a different effect, when combined, they create an intricate visual stimulus. What is also impressive about von Heyl’s work is her skilled use of color, which manages to put across a sense of texture, depth and movement. Coupled with her layering process, von Heyl’s deft application of paint on canvas is what creates a wonderful sense of translucent fluidity and dynamism.
