Hanno Otten, Boulevard @Borden

JTF (just the facts): A total of 24 color photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in the divided gallery space. 15 of the works are unique chromogenic color photograms, sized between 16x12 and 20x87. The other 9 works are chromogenic color prints, sized either 16x12 or 77x52; these prints are available in editions of 3. The images were made between 2001 and 2013. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: When we talk about color in photography, we are rarely discussing it in truly scientific terms. We throw around words like hue, and saturation, and lightness as handy descriptors for the color of the sunset, or a truck, or a pattered dress we are seeing, all without really acknowledging their specific definitions in the space of academic color theory. But from the moment you walk into Hanno Otten's new show, it is obvious that his interest in color is something entirely more systematic than we are generally accustomed to. Bright abstract color erupts from the walls, perfect for springtime, but deeply rooted in an intellectual study of the properties of colored light.

The earliest works on view (from roughly a decade ago) are built up from overlapped layers of strips and rectangles, where transparent blocks hover over vertical stripes, creating changing combinations of additive color. While photograms have traditionally included an element of chance, Otten's works feel rigorously precise - there are edges that are misaligned and touching, but these help explain the color transitions going on. These works then evolve into more blocked compositions that look a little like stained glass windows or harlequin patterns. There is more a sense of angle in these images, of parallelograms interlocking into slightly misaligned flatness. Other works from the same period play with bold layers of loose concentric circles that telescope inward with shimmering energy, like the poster from Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Otten's most recent works step out of the darkroom and reconsider the layered color of one of his own large abstract paintings. Starting with scans of the entire surface, he has then cropped the photographs down to smaller up-close fragments, in effect reprocessing the color washed across the canvas. The end result is compositions that are less hard edged and strict, that softly shift from one colored horizontal band to the next.

These works place Otten in direct dialogue with Jessica Eaton, Walead Beshty, and even Gerhard Richter's recent digital pattern making. They are each testing the limits of photographic color, paring down to Albers-like purity and then lifting the constraints to allow for new experimentation.

Collector's POV: The works in this show range in price from $3000 to $15000, generally based on size and whether the image is unique or editioned. Otten's work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail remains the best/only option for those collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: New Yorker (here)

Hanno Otten, Boulevard
Through May 10th

Janet Borden, Inc.
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Hanno Otten @Borden

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 works are hung in the main gallery space. 8 of the images are chromogenic prints, framed in white and not matted, each 16x12, printed in editions of 3, and made in 2010. There is a single large grid of 21 chromogenic prints, each image pinned to the wall under glass but not framed; the individual prints are roughly 20x15, each made in 2010, and the entire grid is printed in an edition of 3 (2 of the 3 will stay as a set of 21, while 1 will be broken up and sold as individual prints). There is also one large chromogenic print, 74x49, framed in white but not matted, printed in an edition of 3, and made in 2010. The final three works come from the period 1983-1985. These are black and white gelatin silver photograms, each unique. Two are sized 16x12, and one is much larger, at 74x49; all three are framed in white with no mat.(Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Earlier today, I posted a basic, some might say rudimentary, framework for categorizing the different modes of photographic abstraction being employed by today's contemporary artists (here). And while it may be imperfect, this intellectual scaffolding certainly makes thinking about a show like Hanno Otten's much simpler.

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Otten is not first and foremost a photographer in the limiting sense of the word; his artistic career has also spanned sculpture, painting, watercolor, video, and drawing, and in each of these forms, he has systematically explored the boundaries of how we experience color. As such, his "subject matter" isn't anything in particular - it is complex color theory (placing him squarely in the third box in the abstraction framework diagram), and photography is just one medium for testing its limits.

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All of the recent works in this exhibit are fragmented photographs of Otten's own abstract paintings. They chop large canvases into smaller shards, where stripes and circles of color, drips of paint, and layers of brushstrokes are synthesized into indistinct, approximate blurs. While there are echoes of Mark Rothko in some, Morris Louis in others, and even Claude Monet in the organic, green grid, the experience of color is altogether unstable; the fuzzy edges and fluid intersections are in flux, as though the viewer was squinting at the images from afar. The earlier works in the show, aptly titled Real Nothings, are black and white photograms that surely belong in the process-centric box in our abstraction framework. These pared down images (often a white rectangle on a black background) require up-close attention to see the small nuances of tonal change associated with the chance drips and swirls of darkroom chemicals. By far the most striking and memorable work in the show is the 21 image grid, Im Park 1, an exuberant explosion of shimmering, layered green, with hints of blue, pink, and yellow added in different proportions. There is a little Albers theme and variation going on here, as each panel becomes a riff on other adjacent panels, and nuances of color chase each other across the array.
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While not every image in this show is a standout, I enjoyed being forced to consider the properties of photographic color from a new vantage point, where the color isn't expertly sharp by design, but where it wobbles and vacillates with airy elusiveness.
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Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows. The large grid of 21 images is available for $16000 as a set, or $2500 apiece for individual prints from the group. The large chromogenic print is also $16000; the smaller ones are $2500 each. The older images from the 1980s are $24000 for the large photogram and $5000 each for the smaller ones. While Otten has been a successful artist for many years now, his works have very little history in the secondary market for photography; it is difficult to discern any pricing pattern with much certainty. As such, gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Hanno Otten

Through June 26th

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Janet Borden, Inc.
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012