Werner Büttner
Together with Martin Kippenberger and Oehlen, Werner Büttner has exerted a sustained and provocative impact on the European art scene since the late 1970s when, as the “Junge Wilde,” they sought to renounce the dominant modes of conceptual and minimal art through a return to painting. Büttner creates surreal assemblages that question our systems of value and contradict our understanding of what elements or images may be brought together. His work confronts social norms with both irony and satire. While retaining a firm understanding of the history of painting, Büttner is constantly testing convention. For instance, in Die Markierung des Abgrunds (2012) which translates as The Marking of the Abyss, Büttner depicts a sublime German Romantic landscape. However in place of a rapturous onlooker, a dog engages with the scene by cocking its leg into the valley in a gesture of disregard.
In 2013 Büttner was the subject of a major retrospective at ZKM in Karlsruhe, which travelled to the Weserburg Museum of Contemporary Art in Bremen. He has also had solo exhibitions at institutions such as London’s ICA, Kunstverein Hamburg, FRAC Poitou Charentes in Angoulême, Kunstverein München im Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, and Oldenburger Kunstverein in Oldenburg. His …
Together with Martin Kippenberger and Oehlen, Werner Büttner has exerted a sustained and provocative impact on the European art scene since the late 1970s when, as the “Junge Wilde,” they sought to renounce the dominant modes of conceptual and minimal art through a return to painting. Büttner creates surreal assemblages that question our systems of value and contradict our understanding of what elements or images may be brought together. His work confronts social norms with both irony and satire. While retaining a firm understanding of the history of painting, Büttner is constantly testing convention. For instance, in Die Markierung des Abgrunds (2012) which translates as The Marking of the Abyss, Büttner depicts a sublime German Romantic landscape. However in place of a rapturous onlooker, a dog engages with the scene by cocking its leg into the valley in a gesture of disregard.
In 2013 Büttner was the subject of a major retrospective at ZKM in Karlsruhe, which travelled to the Weserburg Museum of Contemporary Art in Bremen. He has also had solo exhibitions at institutions such as London’s ICA, Kunstverein Hamburg, FRAC Poitou Charentes in Angoulême, Kunstverein München im Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, and Oldenburger Kunstverein in Oldenburg. His work has been included in group shows at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunsthalle Köln, Cincinnati Art Museum, Minneapolis Contemporary Arts Museum, among many others.
Courtesy of Marlborough Contemporary
Fonds national d’Art contemporain, Paris, France
Frac PoitouCharentes, Angoulême-Linazay, France
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
Kunstmuseum Walter im Glaspalast, Augsburg, Germany
Sammlung Falckenberg, Kulturstiftung Phoenix Art, Hamburg, Germany
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
Kunstraum Grässlin, St. Georgen, Germany
Marlborough Contemporary, London, UK
