Paintings in Time, 1994

Miami Beach 2016
Paintings in Time

Galerie Nagel Draxler

Painting
Set of seven paintings, acrylic on wood
118.0 x 84.0 (厘米)
46.5 x 33.1 (吋)
Mike Kelley once described the Paintings in Time as counterpart to the Timeless Paintings (1993 – ), an open series that referred to his art school education under the influence of Hans Hofmann’s push-and-pull theory. The series was cut short by his untimely death in 2012. Far from being timeless, the Paintings in Time, created in seven days between Christmas and New Years 1994, can be regarded as a key series in a period of transition between his fabric and toy works to the Educational Complex (1995), a table of architectural models of places the artist once studied. Citing typical motifs from his oeuvre, they are executed in black and white. Except for the first painting, dating from Christmas, Kelley copied the same image every day. The last one, dated December 31, is cut in half. The works’ shape evokes that of mirrors and also point to an earlier work of transitional meaning, Cosmic Egg /Brown Baby from Half a Man (1988), a body of work shown in 1988 at the Renaissance Society, Chicago, which introduced felt banners, stuffed animals and Afghan assemblages. Announcing a turning point for the artist, the Paintings in Time appear like a mystical conceptual exercise oscillating between staged conceptual dryness and ritual performative provocation.