Rob Ober: Life on a Pale Horse
An entire, complex artistic canon was formed following these ideas: the notion of art as something born out of a particular operative process, a phenomenon most closely linked to experience鈥攁n inarticulate, immediate dynamic, beyond words and reason. Utterly personal, Ober鈥檚 paintings, shown in his first solo exhibition at GNYP Gallery, are also very much historically bound.
Still, history must be more effectively defined here. Ober partially grew up in the USSR, the son of an American diplomat; situated in the middle of last century鈥檚 geopolitical theater, it is reasonable to infer that political history was a quotidian concern. The stage of worldly, grand schemes. Something of that can be identified in the paintings in this show, for instance through the mysterious figures unapologetically facing us, with their menacing sensuality, the harsh and violent color contrasts鈥攁n echo of history鈥檚 misdeeds and also expressionism, both Russian and German. In this regard, the titles of the paintings also approximate us, the viewers, to Ober鈥檚 historical leanings and sensibilities.
However, history is also a private affair, interlaced with conscious and subconscious streams. In 鈥淒ynamo,鈥� for instance, a representation of an intimidating goalkeeper, Ober claims that he was surprised by a sudden urge to paint such figure, something that he would only later better understand: HC Dynamo Moscow, it turns out, the hockey team to which Ober rooted for, was sponsored, among other national security structures, by the KGB. The painting, thus, presents a hidden truth, unfolding an alternative narrative.
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An entire, complex artistic canon was formed following these ideas: the notion of art as something born out of a particular operative process, a phenomenon most closely linked to experience鈥攁n inarticulate, immediate dynamic, beyond words and reason. Utterly personal, Ober鈥檚 paintings, shown in his first solo exhibition at GNYP Gallery, are also very much historically bound.
Still, history must be more effectively defined here. Ober partially grew up in the USSR, the son of an American diplomat; situated in the middle of last century鈥檚 geopolitical theater, it is reasonable to infer that political history was a quotidian concern. The stage of worldly, grand schemes. Something of that can be identified in the paintings in this show, for instance through the mysterious figures unapologetically facing us, with their menacing sensuality, the harsh and violent color contrasts鈥攁n echo of history鈥檚 misdeeds and also expressionism, both Russian and German. In this regard, the titles of the paintings also approximate us, the viewers, to Ober鈥檚 historical leanings and sensibilities.
However, history is also a private affair, interlaced with conscious and subconscious streams. In 鈥淒ynamo,鈥� for instance, a representation of an intimidating goalkeeper, Ober claims that he was surprised by a sudden urge to paint such figure, something that he would only later better understand: HC Dynamo Moscow, it turns out, the hockey team to which Ober rooted for, was sponsored, among other national security structures, by the KGB. The painting, thus, presents a hidden truth, unfolding an alternative narrative.
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