(born in Cologne in 1981)
F (2012), 2010, signed on the overlap, oil, lacquer, wood, wool on canvas, 200 x 150 cm, on stretcher, (PS)

Watch Video: Contemporary Art | November 2015 | Austrian and German Artists

Provenance:
Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne
Private Ownership, North Rhine-Westphalia

“ABSTRACT EXPRESSIVE”
Although one of the early works by David Ostrowski, the 2010 piece ‘F (2012)’ nevertheless possesses all of the attributes considered characteristic of the artist’s stylistic idiom. Ostrowski, who graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf after completing the masterclasses under the tutelage of Albert Oehlen, celebrates the medium of painting while still distancing himself from all traditional expectations associated with this classic art form. He does not paint pictures, instead exploring the topic of painting itself and its processes that effervesce with spontaneous inspiration. Starting with a white canvas, he applies minimal artistic interventions that shape the composition. The spray of vibrantly blue paint showers the canvas as a coincidental, expressive gesture. In places the aerosol adds a slightly yellowish hue to the white base, while the canvas itself bears partial incisions he then glues back together and paints over. Scattered pieces of wood and scraps of material like interludes, all of them fragments dug out of Ostrowski’s studio, feed the restless eye of the onlooker and provide a constant stream of new discoveries. Upon closer inspection, the innumerable layers of applied canvas and lacquer lend the work depth and complexity, although the calm overall appearance of the imagery seems enchantingly clear. It is David Ostrowski’s declared intention to essentially negate the acquired knowledge of painting, the tools of an artist, in order to act in the spontaneity of the instant throughout the process of creation, eschewing the pursuit of any distinct strategy. Unlike oil paint, for instance, the use of aerosol does not allow for any subsequent correction. ‘You only have one chance’, as Ostrowski describes his motivation. Nevertheless, within a laborious process of design, he repeatedly varies the effects of his creative happenstance until he is satisfied that the picture has acquired the beauty he seeks. And this piece – ‘F (2012)’ – is most certainly a beautiful example of his work.