Chamade and Study for Chamade, 2021

Wool on canvas with wood
©  2022 Rosemarie Trockel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Photo by Enrico Fiorese; courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of her generation, Rosemarie Trockel has worked in sculpture, collage, photography, installation, video, and paint, always taking a profoundly fluid approach to her materials. In the early 1980s, however, she explored mostly textiles, producing the Strickbilder (knitting pictures), for which she received swift international acclaim. Recently, the artist has returned to wool to produce works such as Chamade and its study. While their monochromatic surfaces evoke the language of abstract painting in the same way her “knitting pictures” of the 1980s did, Trockel’s longtime collaborator, Helga Szentpétery, produces these works by hand. This approach emphasizes the variations and subtle irregularities in the knit. On close inspection, it becomes apparent that Trockel has deliberately stretched the knitted fabric over the frame with its reverse side presented. It is a characteristically playful reminder of the artist’s challenge to the revered status of painting.