Last Oil
2008
Oil on canvas
41x
Eventually and evidently the last drops of oil will be sucked up and the
last of the substance that currently makes our modern world go round will be
history. Once the flagship of fine art, now in the face of a
media unspecific artfield, the medium of oil painting
faces a similar threat of becoming an artistitic
dinosaur. Referring to modern paintings presumed endpoint, the black
monochrome, this painting points to the recurring claimed obsoleteness of the
media of oil painting as well as its persistent presence and – as the case with
crude oil - its commercial saleability and fluctuating prize according to
demand. The reference to ‘last oil’ as a
sacrament related to fatal outcome underlines the finiteness of this matter but
also a hope for a transformation into a metaphysical afterlife; the artwork and
its aura, or should we say theoretical context.