Oliver Jordan

Oliver Jordan stands like no other for the pictorial evolution of the portrait in the twenty-first century, as Volume I of the Portraits series, which focuses on the themes of, among others, fine art, philosophy, and literature, sufficiently documents. Volume II deals with the broad field of music, from classical via jazz to rock 'n' roll: Iggy Pop, Beethoven, Petrozza, Wagner, Hendrix, Coltrane, Kurt Weill, Bowie, B. B. King, Patti Smith, Billie Holiday, Dylan, Morrison. Bringing music and painting together is a natural process for Jordan. Music and painting become a Gesamtkunstwerk. In the accompanying texts, light is shed on Jordan's special painting technique, for that which, after a highly complex painting process, appears to be perceptible on the pictorial surface with regard to the person portrayed testifies to a breathtaking and paradoxical balancing act between abstraction and figuration, which is all but unique in contemporary painting.