Rudolf Stingel
Published instructions for making one of his paintings, then carpeted the Palazzo Grassi.
Rudolf Stingel was born at Merano in northern Italy in 1956 and lives between New York and Merano. In 1989 he published Instructions, a manual in six languages setting out exactly how to produce one of his silver abstract paintings, on the argument that the aura of the gesture would not survive being explained. The work since has kept testing what a painting is: styrofoam panels stamped and cast, celotex insulation panels scratched and drawn on by visitors, whole rooms lined in patterned carpet or silver insulation, and, running against all of that, meticulously painted photorealist portraits and self-portraits in black and white.
The bodies of work are physically very different and the differences matter: the silver and cast panels have delicate, easily marked surfaces that cannot be cleaned; the celotex works are literally soft and dent; the oil portraits are conventional. Which series a work belongs to is the first thing to establish, along with scale, which varies enormously. Many works are untitled and identified by date and dimensions alone. Signature and date are typically on the reverse. Gagosian and Massimo De Carlo provenance is the usual reference.
If you own a work by Rudolf Stingel
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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