“Quelle
Bibémus
Life is Death
Paul Cézanne”
André Butzer, 2020
Fusing European Expressionism with American popular culture, German artist André Butzer (*1973, Stuttgart) has painted his way through the extremes of the 20th into the 21st century. With wide ranging influences, he has established a unique pictorial universe: NASAHEIM, a utopian, unattainable place where all colours are preserved and all worldly conflicts calm down. Many characters have come to populate this thrilling amalgamation of pop culture, art history and politics: his iconic “Wanderer” being one of the earliest.
In 2001, while reading Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, 1797-1799, for the first time, Butzer was shocked: “I felt I knew every word, I thought those words were my own.” He recognised himself in Hölderlin’s fateful character and created the figure of the homeless “Wanderer”, to some extent a self-portrait. Twenty years later, in Untitled, 2021, his latest wanderer travels the very same road – "Hyperion Ave” on which Walt Disney had already built his first film studio in 1926 – for Butzer’s homeland is his own painting and it always has to be invented anew from colours and forms.
Since 1996, André Butzer’s paintings have been the subject of numerous institutional exhibitions, including solo shows at IKOB Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen; Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg; Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen; Museum of the Light, Hokuto; Växjö Konsthall, Växjö; and YUZ Museum, Shanghai.
Butzer’s works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Carré d’Art, Nîmes; Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn; Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg; Hall Art Foundation, Reading; Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin State Museums, Berlin; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; LACMA, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen; Rubell Museum, Miami; and YUZ Museum, Shanghai, among others.
Further exhibitions and events:
Until 14 August 2021
Albert Oehlen
unverständliche braune Bilder
Goethestraße 2/3 Berlin, Bleibtreustraße 15/16 10623 Berlin
12 June – 14 August 2021
Walton Ford
Aquarelle
Bleibtreustraße 45 10623 Berlin
12 June – 7 August 2021
Ai Weiwei
Marbre, Porcelaine, Lego
57, rue de Temple 75004 Paris
22 June – 7 August 2021
Tursic & Mille
Strange Days
41 Dover Street, London W1S 4NS
Press contact:
Galerie Max Hetzler
Honor Westmacott
honor@maxhetzler.com
Berlin: +49 30 346 497 85-0
www.facebook.com/galeriemaxhetzler
www.instagram.com/galeriemaxhetzler
www.twitter.com/hetzlergallery
