Ugo Rondinone

Previous owner: Galerie Walcheturm, Zürich; private collection
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s, London, 2019

SIEBZEHNTERMÄRZNEUNZEHNHUNDERTZWEIUNDNEUNZIG shows concentrically arranged circles in a vibrating colour composition. The airbrush technique blurs the contours to create the impression of a shimmering heat.

Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone began these ‘sun paintings’ also known as mandalas or target paintings in 1992. This work from the Reinhard Ernst Collection is one of the earliest from the series. This is evident on the one hand from the title, which indicates the date of production in large letters, and on the other from the fact that the canvas is rectangular – later works take on the circular form of the motif. In terms of form, Rondinone places the sun paintings in dialogue with 20th-century works of op art and color-field-painting. This is a reference to the artist Kenneth Noland for whom chromatic image composition played an equally important role. The optical effect of the sun pictures also brings to mind the studies of Polish painter and graphic artist Wojciech Fangor, born in 1922, who was interested in the experimental perception of space. One of the leading representatives of op art, Fangor created paintings consisting of coloured circles and waves. Their pulsating, vibrating contours created the impression of movement. Rondinone’s paintings have a similar effect. The bright colours may radiate outward through their presence but the effect is just the opposite, drawing the viewer’s gaze inward.

Ugo Rondinone currently lives and works in New York as a conceptual, media, and installation artist. His versatile oeuvre spans a variety of media, including painting, photography, and video.