Tal R Painting

Where did Tal R’s painting begin?

Was it when a couple of artists from Cologne visited the Copenhagen art academy in 1998? When his encounters with nineties video art suggested new paths ahead for figurative painting? Or did it all begin long before the academy era with a painting of pink Nazis?

For more than twenty-five years, the Danish artist Tal R has been a prominent figure on the international art scene. Right from the outset, he dreamt of painting and of telling stories, even though ‘grand narratives’ had fallen out of favour – not least within the art of painting. You had to ‘enter painting sideways,’ as Tal R puts it.

‘Tal R Painting’ is the first comprehensive presentation of his multifaceted painting practice. It follows his ever-changing art from the 1990s until today, when he is recognised as a significant innovator in contemporary figurative painting.

Pernille Albrethsen is an art critic for the Danish newspaper ‘Weekendavisen’ and is the Copenhagen editor of the Scandinavian art journal ‘Kunstkritikk’. She holds an MA in modern culture from the University of Copenhagen and New York University.