Troy Brauntuch

Over the last few years Brauntuch has transitioned his studio practice to the use of oil paint, a medium that permits the seamless blending of forms, the attainment of a refined somberness, and an extended working time conducive to precise adjustments. This new body of work will be presented alongside early experiments with photographic processes together with several large-format canvases that demonstrate his celebrated use of ink, pastel, conté stick, and raw pigment to create ghostly images that teeter between legibility and abstract gesture. Spanning almost fifty years of his career, the exhibition aims to underline a central tenet of Brauntuch's deconstructive approach to art-making. In various ways, these works challenge the belief that images can provide a stable, direct, or unproblematic link to reality, objective meaning, or a fixed historical event. Museums and the vitrines of art they house have become a topic of intense art historical scrutiny. In his Untitled (Display Case) paintings, Brauntuch utilizes photographs taken by Heinrich Hoffmann of exhibitions held at the House of German Art in Munich between 1937 and 1944. Brauntuch's Untitled (Rodeo) paintings act as something of a foil to the historically loaded imagery, taken from a private archive of photographs of his dog, they are deeply personal, poetic, and tender.