Adrian Ghenie - Romanian (b. 1977)

Born in Baia Mare, Romania, and now based in Berlin, Germany, the Generation X painter is a graduate from the Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca. Growing up under the iron-fist rule of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Ghenie would frequently portray macabre scenery and defaced figures, via which to investigate the violent aspects of European history. He is well-known for his depictions of 20th century figures, particularly strongmen associated with genocide and mass suffering, in gnawed and slashed, blurred and speckled forms. Ghenie draws on a sense of national identity in his work to bridge the gap between the abstract and the figurative, while continuing to explore the possibilities of the media at his disposal, merging major themes and narratives of classical and contemporary painting. His reinterpretation of painting by analogy and idiosyncrasy, whereby the indifference between the portrait and the surface remains constant, has been compared to Francis Bacon. Ghenie often isolates the subject-matter against a neutral backdrop and limit his brushstrokes to within the figure’s profile, at times from a classical perspective, other times tilting the background by working on the surface, to the extent that it becomes distinguishable from the foreground. Rather than traditional tools, Ghenie paints primarily with palette knives and stencils.

selected artworks

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