Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce Rohe Milch, a solo exhibition by André Butzer at the gallery’s new space at Potsdamer Straße 77–87.
After having explored the fundamental dimensions of colour, light, proportions and the potentiality of painterly expression in the seemingly utter black of his N-Paintings, Butzer relocated to California from 2018 to 2021. Painting outdoors year-round, his latest works brim with a vibrating freshness and display his painterly mastery.
This “American experience” confirmed Butzer’s belief that paintings are “localisations of the greatest despair and the greatest hope,” which is exactly why “they come closest to the very joy and aid we are in dire need of.” As each painting establishes a pictorial position of its own true dwelling, the titles name customs and things, places, landscapes and friendships, Butzer holds dear.
The inner location of the pictorial enables this. It creates a place within this world, yet it is not of it. “Its origins,” says Butzer, “being blue, red, yellow and the colour of flesh.” Everything springs from these four primary colours, carefully balancing and reverberating and brightly illuminating each other. Among the vivid chromatic interactions, the unconstraint incarnate embodies a consoling physical presence—like a bather or reclining figure. Solely by means of colour, one feels the paintings’ temperaments and how firmly each of them comes into its own stand.
Loaded with real1, every painting modestly preserves a locale for one such encounter:
Song titles, food, beverages and a deserted chain of diners in “Six Gallon Pie” and “Steak and Ale.” An “Unfrozen Memory” of loneliness and dislocation, of happiness and soft caress. Recollections of folk music and a promised land of milk and honey in “Big Rock Candy Mountain”. In “Saturday Cartoons,” it’s kids’ delights on weekend television and one out of 21 choices of frozen yogurt. “Eric’s Garage” is the place of a friend and in “Bibémus (Seed Bakery)” a random store merges with art history and all of a sudden, a plain croissant or a rock face in the San Gabriel mountains resemble a golden Provençal quarry. “The Most Dangerous Game” recalls both Butzer’s riotous beginnings and Guy Debord’s retreat from the Situationist International into the serenity of a secluded countryside village.2 And in face of the unhindered bio-politicisation of the body3, “Raw Milk” poses a question almost too simple, namely, of what to drink and how to remain in possession of one’s own health, of how to reach a self-determined stance in life accordingly.
1 see Giorgio Agamben, What is real?, Stanford / CA: Standford University Press, 2018
2 retold by Giorgio Agamben, in: The Use of Bodies: Homo Sacer IV.2, Stanford / CA: Standford University Press, 2016
3 cf. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume I: An Introduction, New York: Pantheon Books, 1978
On January 9, 2022, a concert of Walter Zimmermann’s “Franconian Dances (from: Local Music, 1977-1981)” will take place within the exhibition, performed by the Sonar Quartet, organised by Thomas Groetz.
The exhibition “André Butzer – Rohe Milch” will be accompanied by a special artist’s publication.
In November 2021, TASCHEN will publish the extensive monograph “André Butzer” and the third volume of Butzer’s collected writings will be edited by Edition Linn, Heidelberg.
Early in 2022, Galerie Max Hetzler will publish »André Butzer 2003–2021«, a book dedicated to their longtime collaboration.
André Butzer (*1973, Stuttgart), lives in Berlin-Wannsee.
Solo exhibitions of his work have been held in international institutions, including the YUZ Museum, Shanghai, and Museum of the Light, Hokuto (2020); IKOB Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen (2018); Växjö Konsthall, Växjö (2017); Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt, and Neue Galerie Gladbeck (2016); Kunstverein Reutlingen (2015); Künstlerhaus – Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz (2014); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, and Kunsthistorisches Museum / Theseustempel, Vienna (2011); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (2009); Kunstverein Ulm (2005); Kunstverein Heilbronn (2004).
Works by André Butzer are held in the collections of prominent museums including Art Institute of Chicago; Carré d’Art, Nîmes; Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen / Bonn; Hall Art Foundation, Reading / Derneburg; Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin State Museums, Berlin; LACMA, Los Angeles; Marciano Collection, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Nationalgalerie / Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen; Rubell Museum, Miami; YUZ Museum, Shanghai.
Further exhibitions and events:
4 November 2021 – 29 January 2022
Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman
Goethestraße 2/3, 10623 Berlin
15 December 2021 – 29 January 2022
Inge Mahn
Adventskranz mit balancierenden Stühlen
Window Gallery, Goethestraße 2/3, 10623 Berlin
8 January – 26 February 2022
Robert Grosvenor
Bleibtreustraße 15/16, 10623 Berlin
14 January – 26 February 2022
Giulia Andreani
Kitchen Knife
Bleibtreustraße 45, 10623 Berlin
15 January – 26 February 2022
David Novros
57, rue du Temple, 75004 Paris
20 January – 26 February 2022
Karel Appel
41 Dover Street, London W1S 4NS
Press contact:
Galerie Max Hetzler
Honor Westmacott
honor@maxhetzler.com
Berlin: +49 30 346 497 85-0
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