Kai Althoff

(Born 1966 in Cologne, Germany)
 

Untitled, 2004
Gloss paint on fabric
33 ½ x 35 ½ in. (85.1 x 90.2 cm)
Fractional and promised gift of Nancy and Nick Adams

Kai Althoff's Untitled depicts a lone skateboarder, a symbol of youth culture captured in midair in a moment of exhilaration and anxiety, independence and risk. The work features striped fabric and luminous orange paint to outline the shape of the skateboard ramp, continuing his highly inventive exploration of new painting techniques. Kai Kein Respekt, Althoff's first solo U.S. museum exhibition, was held at the ICA in 2004. 

This work is not currently on view.

Untitled, 1993
Cardboard silhouette, color pencil, watercolor and pencil on wax paper
43 x 53 inches (109.2 x 134.6 cm)
Extended loan from private collection, Berlin

This work depicts Jürgen Bartsch, the pedophile serial killer whose crimes scandalized German society during the 1960s. Bartsch has appeared in several of Althoff’s works, and here he is shown offering a beer to a dejected-looking policeman. The polarity between authority figure and transgressor is suspended; the sunbeams that surround Bartsch’s face are echoed in the
badge on the policeman’s hat. While its meaning remains ambiguous, Althoff’s subject is provocative. The artist, whose own father was a policeman, takes an extraordinarily loaded scenario and renders it with a directness and simplicity, at the same time preserving its emotional intensity and ambivalence.

   Previous    Next