A PRODIGAL SON RETURNS
Andreas Golder’s new show, ”100 kg Self-Esteem”, marks the long-awaited return of one of European Art’s prodigal sons. In the ‘00s, Golder was heralded as the greatest talent of his generation by a leading, international art magazine, his name was everywhere, and the rebellious painter and sculptor could practically pick and choose between galleries and museums. Andreas Golder was a rock star.
But as a consequence of a series of questionable career moves and sudden changes in style, which – among other things – meant that at the height of his success he parted ways with British juggernaut White Cube, arguably the trendiest gallery of the time, Russian-born Andreas Golder slowly but steadily started disappearing down a hole, he seemed to have spent all his waking energy digging. An epic downfall seemed eminent.
But talent does not rust – not even in the face of an ever-searching, self-destructive ego. Golder was picked up by his friends, he got a studio spot with Jonas Burgert and gradually started painting his way back to the art scene.
Today, at the age of 40, the wayward kid from Yekaterinburg has his feet back on solid ground. In “100 kg Self-Esteem”, Andreas Golder proves that his artistic talent and precision is utterly unabated. The centerpiece of the show is a typical Golder sculpture in painted bronze: A small, obese lump of a man, who observes his own, naked body in the mirror in all its monstrous ugliness; self-absorbed and disinterested in the world around him. The sculpture is accompanied by a series of smaller oil paintings and a handful of watercolors that all somehow mirror the peculiar being in the room. The brushstrokes and the colors are expressive, assertive and – most of all – uncompromising. It is Golder at his finest.
The works of Andreas Golder are held in several of the most prominent private collections in Denmark and internationally, and Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, where his 2008 solo exhibition “It has my name on it” took place, owns a number of defining pieces.
