Previously in this space, I have written about the necessity of seeing works of art in person, as well as about the materiality of oil paint. This week my research led me to the art of David Stern, who uses paint in such a way as to make his work particularly difficult to appreciate onscreen. Stern—born in Essen, Germany in 1956—participated in the German art world’s embrace of figurative painting during the 1980s. In 1994, he and his wife decided that they needed a change of scenery from Cologne, where they had been living, deciding to move to New York. This change, which resulted in Stern’s naturalization as a U.S. citizen in 2000, did not ultimately change his artistic style, which remains resolutely focused on pushing the absolute limits of oil on canvas as an artistic medium.¹

Stern has always been a figurative painter, never embracing the abstraction that defined much of the art of the twentieth century, though he does call himself an “action painter” in the vein of midcentury masters like Willem de Kooning.² His use of a thick impasto is reminiscent of the older Dutch-American artist, though he takes it to a much higher degree. In a way that I personally have trouble seeing in even a high-resolution computer image, Stern piles on the paint, using it in an almost sculptural manner to not so much represent his form as to build them up. Critics and other observers often remark on the sheer materiality of it, the way its presence seems to blot out all other possible perspectives.³

The critic Lance Esplund has remarked that he believes Stern does not use his paint in this way just to do it. Rather, it is the artist’s way of using the medium to its fullest, to represent the humanity of his subjects to the greatest possible extent.⁴ For myself, I will admit that I was not familiar with Stern’s work before my recent encounter with him. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am looking forward to the time (sooner every day) when I can make my way down to CFAM’s collections storage. I want to investigate Esplund’s claims—and Stern’s art—for myself.

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¹ Karen Wilkin, “Introduction,” in David Stern: The American Years (1995 – 2008) ; [Published in Conjunction with the Concurrent Exhibitions David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), Yeshiva University Museum, New York, September 18, 2008 – February 8, 2009 ; Alexandre Hogue Gallery of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 30 – November 28, 2008 and National Tour until 2012], ed. Karen Wilkin (Exhibition David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), New York, NY, 2008), 15.

² Karen Wilkin and David Stern, “David Stern and Karen Wilkin: A Conversation,” in David Stern: The American Years (1995 – 2008) ; [Published in Conjunction with the Concurrent Exhibitions David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), Yeshiva University Museum, New York, September 18, 2008 – February 8, 2009 ; Alexandre Hogue Gallery of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 30 – November 28, 2008 and National Tour until 2012], ed. Karen Wilkin (Exhibition David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), New York, NY, 2008), 19. Lance Esplund, “Excess and Restraint: The Paintings and Drawings of David Stern,” in David Stern: The American Years (1995 – 2008) ; [Published in Conjunction with the Concurrent Exhibitions David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), Yeshiva University Museum, New York, September 18, 2008 – February 8, 2009 ; Alexandre Hogue Gallery of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 30 – November 28, 2008 and National Tour until 2012], ed. Karen Wilkin (Exhibition David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), New York, NY, 2008), 29.

³ Wilkin, “Introduction,” 15.

⁴ Esplund, “Excess and Restraint: The Paintings and Drawings of David Stern,” 31.