Tal R (b. 1967) is perhaps Denmark's most internationally acclaimed artist of the moment. Tal R's work spans a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, textiles, sculpture and furniture. At only 40 years old, he exhibited at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark and in the summer of 2018, he had a retrospective at the same museum.
Tal R has always painted in an expressionist style, sticking to a limited colour palette. The turn of the decade in 2010 saw a major shift in Tal R's artistic practice. He found himself painting decorative crosses, lines and ornaments. Tal R then decided to focus on motifs that had a clear narrative and that he could explain himself. In connection with this visual change, Tal R realized that he also needed to work with a new technique and decided to use rabbit skin glue. This is something that has been used by artists since the ancient times and cannot be experimented with in the same way as traditional oil paint. Rabbit skin glue dries quickly; therefore you need to have an idea of what the finished painting will look like. The paint is applied very thinly and flatly to the unprimed canvas. The glue colour gives the canvas a special luster and this luster has been compared to Mark Rothko's paintings.
The auction's painting "Larsson" is painted in just this way and represents the Swedish artist Carl Larsson. Perhaps Carl Larsson is depicted as he is the opposite of the decorative painting. Larsson's paintings have a clear narrative and is an artist that Tal R draws inspiration from.
As the artist says: "The magic of a painting is that you are looking at everything at once. A painting is stupid, it's flat, it's weak, but in the middle of that, it's absolutely beautiful."
Tal R exhibits both in solo and group exhibitions worldwide and has been shown in art institutions internationally and his work is included in several important collections.