Courtesy Galerie Almine Rech, Brussels-Paris; © Amelie Von Wulffen

Amelie Von Wulffen, "Untitled" (2008). Pastel, ink, watercolor, and photographs on paper, 58 3/4 x 111 3/4 in.

   November 2008 Reviews

Total Enlightenment

Paul McCarthy

Eleanor Antin

Roger Hiorns

Lorraine O'Grady

Ron Amstutz

Raha Raissnia

Alexandra Grant

Dave Cole

Multiple Modernities:
India, 1905 - 2005

Clare Woods

Gemma Holt

Roger Hilton

Joachim Koester

The Talamoni Collection

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In a confluence of technique and effect, Amelie Von Wulffen’s works on paper seep into your consciousness. This exhibition, titled “Die Vertuschung” (“Dissimulation”), intersperses large black-and-white photographs of old-fashioned interiors, loose watercolor and photograph collages, and ink and watercolor landscapes (all Untitled, 2008), hung at different heights. The encounter between the Saxony-born artist’s misty blushed paint and the sharp, visible seams of overlapping, glued sheets of paper creates a slight surface tension; then the images of trees or buildings settle in, like naphthalene leeching into sheltered garments. It is hard to shake them. her large unframed snapshots are of hermetic, furnished but unoccupied rooms: several may even be portraits of closed doors, and some were apparently taken in the family home. Two chintzy painted benches with attached side-shelves (Sofa, 2008) display found drawings of a German landscape and a print of the Paris opéra garnier, dating from the period of the Nazi Occupation (1940–44). These and Commode (2008), a massive painted dresser topped with seashells, contribute to the reigning feeling of uneasy domesticity. Dissimulation implies concealment, and, though it takes time, Von Wulffen’s approach to personal and collective German history—to home, to Heimat—reveals as much as it hides.

"Amelie Von Wulffen" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' November 2008 Table of Contents.