Tim Eitel
06 Nov - 05 Dec 2009
TIM EITEL
"Invisible Forces "
November 6, 2009 — December 5, 2009
PW 22
PaceWildenstein presents a series of new paintings by Tim Eitel in his second solo exhibition at PaceWildenstein
NEW YORK, October 26, 2009—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present a series of new oil on canvas paintings by Tim Eitel in his second solo exhibition at the gallery. A catalogue with an essay by Joachim Pissarro, Bershad Professor of Art History and director of the Hunter College Art Galleries, will accompany the exhibition. Tim Eitel: Invisible Forces will be on view from November 6 through December 5, 2009 at 545 West 22nd Street, New York City. The artist will be present at an opening reception on Thursday, November 5th from 6-8 p.m.
In Tim Eitel’s emotionally complex and stirring paintings, the artist conflates fragments of images and memories of everyday life with print and film media, as well as the history of art. Using formal, realist painting techniques, Eitel creates disconnected worlds extracted from time. The artist isolates his anonymous subjects from their contexts, profoundly elevating the significance of every gesture and nuance. Past and present, memories, feelings, and associations converge, evoking ambiguous narratives which force viewers to reexamine their own perceptions of society and to see that which they often allow to become invisible.
The new works are based on pictorial elements isolated from photographs that Eitel takes on city streets as part of an ongoing investigation of the world surrounding him. Eitel uses ambiguous settings and distills out all reference to motion or change, allowing the works to become a lens into the viewer’s own contextual references and associations. “There is a saying that we only see what we know, and sociologically, this notion might explain why it is so easy to ignore the homeless, the cardboard boxes, and the pigeons, that are all over the streets,” Eitel explains; “If you don’t ‘know’ these things, they become invisible. But in front of a painting, you bring so many things you know already—your expectations, taste, opinions—that you can’t help but look at the subject with other eyes. A painting is much like an invitation to go and see things differently.”
Some of Eitel’s most recent works have become markedly more abstract, accompanying his growing interest in formal composition, like paintings in which figures disappear altogether: a pile of cloth strewn across the floor, a cot with rumpled sheets, paper towels and bags on the sidewalk. Looking to Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, Eitel’s abstraction is closely tied to spirituality and philosophy and how these messages can be expressed through art. Formal structure and meaning work in tandem in his canvases, such as Crows, 2009, (85-1/8" x 70-1/8"), where the bleak, grey backdrop serves as a formal device and simultaneously emphasizes a sense of despair.
Tim Eitel was born in 1971 in the southern German city of Leonberg, near Stuttgart. He graduated with a degree in painting from the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig in 2001. Eitel first gained recognition as a co-founder of the collective art gallery, Liga, in Berlin. He joined PaceWildenstein in 2006 and his first solo-exhibition at the gallery, Center of Gravity, was mounted the same year.
Eitel has participated in more than fifty exhibitions worldwide since 2000. In 2008, Martin Hellmold, Director of the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, organized and curated Tim Eitel: Die Bewohner, a traveling exhibition which debuted at the museum and had subsequent installations at the Kunsthallen Brandts, Denmark and Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany. Other significant solo exhibitions include Currents 96: Tim Eitelat the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005-6); Tim Eitel: Terrain, a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum zu Allerheiligen/Kunstverein Schaffhausen (2004-5); and Tim Eitel at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2002).
Eitel’s work has also been included in a traveling exhibition organized by Mass MocA (2004-2008) and in group shows at the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2008-9); MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy (2008); Cleveland Museum of Art (2005); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2004-8); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2003); and Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003).
Eitel has received a number of prestigious scholarships and awards throughout his career, including the Marion Ermer-Preis (2003) and the Landesgraduiertenstipendium, Saxonia, Germany (2002). He was granted an artist’s residency in the International studio programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2002. His work is part of numerous museum collections and important private collections worldwide, such as the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany; Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles; Sammlung Essl—Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Austria, and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
The artist lives and works in New York City.
"Invisible Forces "
November 6, 2009 — December 5, 2009
PW 22
PaceWildenstein presents a series of new paintings by Tim Eitel in his second solo exhibition at PaceWildenstein
NEW YORK, October 26, 2009—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present a series of new oil on canvas paintings by Tim Eitel in his second solo exhibition at the gallery. A catalogue with an essay by Joachim Pissarro, Bershad Professor of Art History and director of the Hunter College Art Galleries, will accompany the exhibition. Tim Eitel: Invisible Forces will be on view from November 6 through December 5, 2009 at 545 West 22nd Street, New York City. The artist will be present at an opening reception on Thursday, November 5th from 6-8 p.m.
In Tim Eitel’s emotionally complex and stirring paintings, the artist conflates fragments of images and memories of everyday life with print and film media, as well as the history of art. Using formal, realist painting techniques, Eitel creates disconnected worlds extracted from time. The artist isolates his anonymous subjects from their contexts, profoundly elevating the significance of every gesture and nuance. Past and present, memories, feelings, and associations converge, evoking ambiguous narratives which force viewers to reexamine their own perceptions of society and to see that which they often allow to become invisible.
The new works are based on pictorial elements isolated from photographs that Eitel takes on city streets as part of an ongoing investigation of the world surrounding him. Eitel uses ambiguous settings and distills out all reference to motion or change, allowing the works to become a lens into the viewer’s own contextual references and associations. “There is a saying that we only see what we know, and sociologically, this notion might explain why it is so easy to ignore the homeless, the cardboard boxes, and the pigeons, that are all over the streets,” Eitel explains; “If you don’t ‘know’ these things, they become invisible. But in front of a painting, you bring so many things you know already—your expectations, taste, opinions—that you can’t help but look at the subject with other eyes. A painting is much like an invitation to go and see things differently.”
Some of Eitel’s most recent works have become markedly more abstract, accompanying his growing interest in formal composition, like paintings in which figures disappear altogether: a pile of cloth strewn across the floor, a cot with rumpled sheets, paper towels and bags on the sidewalk. Looking to Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, Eitel’s abstraction is closely tied to spirituality and philosophy and how these messages can be expressed through art. Formal structure and meaning work in tandem in his canvases, such as Crows, 2009, (85-1/8" x 70-1/8"), where the bleak, grey backdrop serves as a formal device and simultaneously emphasizes a sense of despair.
Tim Eitel was born in 1971 in the southern German city of Leonberg, near Stuttgart. He graduated with a degree in painting from the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig in 2001. Eitel first gained recognition as a co-founder of the collective art gallery, Liga, in Berlin. He joined PaceWildenstein in 2006 and his first solo-exhibition at the gallery, Center of Gravity, was mounted the same year.
Eitel has participated in more than fifty exhibitions worldwide since 2000. In 2008, Martin Hellmold, Director of the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, organized and curated Tim Eitel: Die Bewohner, a traveling exhibition which debuted at the museum and had subsequent installations at the Kunsthallen Brandts, Denmark and Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany. Other significant solo exhibitions include Currents 96: Tim Eitelat the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005-6); Tim Eitel: Terrain, a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum zu Allerheiligen/Kunstverein Schaffhausen (2004-5); and Tim Eitel at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2002).
Eitel’s work has also been included in a traveling exhibition organized by Mass MocA (2004-2008) and in group shows at the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2008-9); MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy (2008); Cleveland Museum of Art (2005); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2004-8); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2003); and Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003).
Eitel has received a number of prestigious scholarships and awards throughout his career, including the Marion Ermer-Preis (2003) and the Landesgraduiertenstipendium, Saxonia, Germany (2002). He was granted an artist’s residency in the International studio programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2002. His work is part of numerous museum collections and important private collections worldwide, such as the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany; Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles; Sammlung Essl—Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Austria, and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami.
The artist lives and works in New York City.