Christopher Wool - Biography

Christopher Wool's large paintings are covered with gray streaks(Untitled, 2007), and they look as if someone had failed miserably in trying to wipe down a dirty floor. "Abstract paintings have something paradoxical about them: it has to do with communication - and simultaneously with its impossibility" says Christopher Wool. Born in 1955, the artist does not draw attention to himself through abstraction alone; rather, he does so above all through his trademark Word Paintings, which enthrall and confuse gallery visitors with giantblack letters and messages like: "THE HARDER YOU LOOK THE HARDER YOU LOOK" (Untitled, 2000).

 

Communication is the central theme in Wool's work. For this American artist, it is not the final product that matters. His interest lies solely in experiencing the creative process as multivalently as possible. Just as a linguist approaches language, so does Woolapproach his work. He considers the entire system, the individual components and their importance, in order to understand how language and images work. He constructs and destroys his work with the widest variety of methods in order to distill the core of the image. He sprayed black paint onto a canvas, only to wipe it away later with asolvent. He often photographs his paintings, copies them onto other canvases, and covers them with more images of his own making or from the internet, or censors some areas with black bars or spots of color. The multi-layered paintings force the viewer to question the obvious, since every fact consists of several dimensions. "Annihilation and visual composition are interdependent," wrote the jury of the Wolfgang-Hahn prize regarding the artist's work, and awarded him thehonor in 2009.

"His interest lies solely in experiencing the creative process as multivalently as possible."

Christopher Wool - art exhibitions

The paintings of Christopher Wool have already been exhibited at the MoMA in New York, the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Kunsthaus of Graz, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His works are to be found in the public colllections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Los Angeles, and the Zurich Kunsthalle. Private collections like the Basel Schaulager, the Brandhorst Museum, as well as the Goetzcollection in Munich also own works by this artist.

 

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