SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Painting was declared dead by Paul Delaroche in 1839, and that opinion has been frequently reasserted ever since. But in the hands of a virtuoso who is also an astute conceptualist, painting persists in being the most seductive and attention-holding of all mediums. Cornelius Völker’s fourth solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery is a case in point.

In his distinctive, wet-oil-paint-on-wet-oil-paint style, Völker explores the thorny relationships we humans have with nature, time and mortality, while at the same time critiquing the history of European painting. His precedents are 17th century Dutch still lifes, Édouard Manet, Chaïm Soutine, Giorgio Morandi, Gerhard Richter and Wayne Thiebaud, yet his methodology is original, and concerns are contemporary.

Many of the subjects of the paintings in this exhibition were acquired from the florist or candy shop; purchased and presented as tokens of affection. In other paintings, burning candle stubs and blossoms past their prime signal the inevitable passage of time, while cellophane-wrapped hard candies and vacuum-packed meat allude to our attempt to evade it. Balloons -- among the most impermanent of things -- may refer to the transience of the celebration or the brevity of childhood.

Heart to Heart -- the name given by the artist to these collective bodies of work -- suggests an intimate conversation… with an underlying connotation that the topic may be sensitive or difficult. Certainly, Völker is in dialogue with the painters who came before, and occasionally he seems to be poking at them. Clearly the artworks in the exhibition speak to one another... petals dropping from a blown bloom in one piece become actual rot in another. But what of the relationship of Völker’s choice of motifs to us, the viewers? Pre-packaged, hothouse-grown flower arrangements and the “difficult” cuts from the butcher (painted, notably, by a vegetarian) are neither the sumptuous displays of Dutch “stilleven” nor Thiebaud’s Pop-y sweets. Though the method in which the paintings are made is sensuous and beautiful, the contemporary subject matter subverts their romanticism. They ask us to consider what we do with our short lives…. What remains when the party is over? How do you feel after you’ve eaten all of the sweets? And while love may not last forever, the plastic these candies are wrapped in, certainly will.

Cornelius Völker was born in Kronach, Germany in 1965 and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He is a professor of painting at the Kunstakademie Münster. His work has been the subject of many solo museum shows throughout Germany and Europe.