# Albert Oehlen artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/albert-oehlen/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T04:31:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: German
- Movements: Cologne art scene of the 1980s, Contemporary German painting
- Common media: Painting, Installation art

## About Albert Oehlen

Albert Oehlen (born 1954, Krefeld, Germany) is a German painter, installation artist, and musician who emerged as a distinctive voice in the Cologne art scene of the 1980s. Active since the early 1980s, Oehlen became known for an approach to painting that embraced deliberate provocation, stylistic disruption, and experimentation across figuration and abstraction. He is the brother of fellow artist Markus Oehlen and was a member of the musical group Calma-Trio. Oehlen's work is held in major international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate in London. He has lived and worked in Bühler, Switzerland, and Segovia, Spain. His paintings have been exhibited widely in European and American institutions, and he remains an influential figure in contemporary German art.

## Common works and media

Oehlen commonly works in oil and acrylic on canvas, often at large scale, as well as works on paper, drawings, and mixed-media compositions. His output spans both figurative and abstract modes, sometimes incorporating collage elements, digital manipulation, and text. Installation-based works have also been part of his practice. Collectors may encounter original paintings, works on paper, and limited-edition prints in auction and gallery contexts.

## Market and appraisal context

Albert Oehlen's paintings and works on paper appear regularly in Post-War and Contemporary Art sales at international auction houses. Collectors should consider factors including the work's medium, size, date, provenance, exhibition history, and condition. Institutional recognition, with works held by MoMA and Tate, supports ongoing market interest. Comparable public auction results, when available, provide the most reliable benchmark for appraisal. As with all contemporary art, attribution should be verified through documented provenance and gallery records.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Albert Oehlen, this page draws on records from MoMA, Tate, the Library of Congress, VIAF, the RKD, and Wikidata, alongside Invaluable auction data when available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q529337
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Oehlen
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/115946242/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83229014
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/4375
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/albert-oehlen-8244
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/60273