Coinciding with the artist’s 50th anniversary, the Thyssen Museum in Madrid presents an exhibition of André Butzer (1973, Stuttgart) with a compilation of some of his best works. Thus, the series of contemporary artists that began as a tribute to Hans Heinrich Thyseen-Bornemisza in October 2022, a faithful follower of the expressionist trend, continues.
Until September 10, the museum will host the exhibition with 22 works made between 1999 and 2022, covering several of its stylistic stages. Through the dedicated 400 square meters on the first floor, the collection expresses the typical German visual nonconformism.
Convinced of the young artist’s potential, Blanca and Borja Thyssen have decided to add two of his works to their private collection: Aladin und die Wunderlampe [Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp] (2010) and Untitled (2022).
Guillermo Solana, curator of the collection, described Butzer’s work as an “impression of wonder and incisive complexity.” Through the different rooms that make up the exhibition, one can appreciate from the first glance how the German experiments with colors and different textures on canvas to record his tireless renewal. “In the show, you start with a complex hybrid expressionism and then paint abstract labyrinths. You keep walking and you find dark paintings that is like a ‘start over.’ To finish, Butzer surprises you with works that drink from the comic and is filled again matter” added Solana at the inauguration.
André Butzer was born in Stuttgart, in the southwest of Germany, in 1973. He began painting at the age of 20 but soon decided to found an independent academy (Akademie Isotrop) together with other young artists to spread their ideas without pressure. Throughout much of his work that is collected in the museum, the influence of American culture related to the typical consumption of the United States in the 1920s is appreciated. Butzer defends that ‘mass culture’ and ‘high culture’ are intimately connected.
Using the canvas as a mirror, the German will capture the contradictions typical of the 20th century: consumption and destruction, progress and regression, enthusiasm and pessimism… To achieve that contrast, he will masterfully play with cold and warm tones, superimposing objects on top of objects, creating an unknown image.
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