Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to present an exhibition of a single painting by André Butzer in Holzmarktstraße 15-18 from March 5th to April 16th, 2005.
Grießbrei für alle! shows four colourful comic-like heads, which fill almost the entire large format canvas (378 x 774 cm). A blue as well as a green area separate the background into sky and meadow. The faces smile carefree and happy at the spectator. It seems to be a children's birthday party in the garden on a sunny day. Are the appearances deceiving?
Grotesque comic characters play a significant role in André Butzer's work. By his expressive way of using color and form he transforms the figures into an overreaching image. The characteristics of the Mickey-Mouse-World, e.g. the big, oval eyes in Grießbrei für alle! or the white four-finger-gloves in other works by André Butzer initiate a key stimulus. Innocence and cheerfulness are conveyed. However, the harmony is put into question by the vivid flow as well as the dissolution of the clear line of the painting, which reveals a glimpse at the downside of the happiness of an artificial world.
Fascinated by the industrial making of certain motives André Butzer 'produces' his grotesque comic creatures, the Friedens-Siemens figures since 2000. Butzer's paintings break the traditional Pop Art forms and thus he creates his own mass culture. His paintings form a frieze of life, which represents a series of diverse types.
This is the second solo exhibition of André Butzer at Galerie Max Hetzler. In 1996 he founded the Akademie Isotrop in Hamburg together with other artists. The initiators managed the school autonomously until 2000 and represented it in a number of national and international exhibitions. At the Kunstverein Heilbronn an important solo exhibition Das Ende vom Friedens-Siemens Menschentraum took place in 2004 accompanied by a catalogue. Born 1973 in Stuttgart, André Butzer lives and works in Berlin.
Upcoming exhibitions:
Albert Oehlen Spiegelbilder 1982-85
March 22 - April 30, 2005
Zimmerstrasse 90-91
Georg Herold X. Baracke
May 6 - June 25, 2005
Holzmarktstrasse 15-18
