2014 Die Zeit versklavt uns mit Hoffnung, Galerie Figge von Rosen, Berlin, Germany

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1 Werner Büttner 1954 Born in Jena, Germany The artist lives and works in Hamburg, Germany Education 1989 Professor at HfbK, Hamburg SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 Poor Souls, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY 2015 The Marking of the Abyss, Marlborough Contemporary, London, UK 2014 Die Zeit versklavt uns mit Hoffnung, Galerie Figge von Rosen, Berlin, Germany 2013 Werner Büttner, Weserburg Museum, Bremen, Germany Werner Büttner-Gemeine Wahrheiten, ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany 2012 Die Avantgarde von Hinten, Marion MeyerContemporain, Paris, France ArtBrussels, solo show, Marion Meyer Contemporain, Brussels, Belgium 2008 Bilanzpromenade, Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf, Germany Galerie Marion Meyer, Paris, France Wetterfester Schmetterling, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt, Germany 2007 El baile de los parásitos, Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Spain Gerocktes Haus, Galerie Hohenlohe, Vienna, Austria Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, Germany 2006 KOMPROMAT (Kompromittierendes Material), Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, Germany

2 2005 Hello cruel world, Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany Polizeichef Hegel, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt, Germany 2004 Welcome to acces interdit, FRAC Poitou Charentes, Angoulême, France Les diables de chacun, L Espace SainteCroix, Loudun, France 2003 Werner Büttner Gemälde und Zeichnungen aus den 80er Jahren, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany Werner Büttner Verkehrte Welt, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany 2001 Das Fleisch organisiert sich selbst, Galerie Christine König, Vienna, Austria 2000 Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt Globuli, Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany 1998 Werner Büttner Neue Arbeiten, Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany 1997 Galerie Michael Janssen, Cologne, Germany Städtische Museen Jena/Romantikerhaus, Jena, Germany 1996 Einseitig gedeckter Tisch, Galerie Helga Maria Klosterfelde, Hamburg, Germany 1995 Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Heimspiel, Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen, Germany Heute scheint die Sonne in Strömen, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt, Germany 1993 KRaum Daxer, Munich, Germany 1991 Hubert Kiecol, Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna, Austria Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany Galerie Grässlin Ehrhardt, Frankfurt, Germany 1990 Kampf dem Verderb, Jänner Galerie, Wien, Austria Kerlin Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam, Netherlands Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany 1989

3 Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany Das wichtige SchwarzWeiß, Städtisches, Kunstmuseum, Reutlingen 1988 What about having our mother back, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany Stilleben, Galerie GrässlinEhrhardt, Frankfurt, Germany 1987 Viva Büttner Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany Bilder und einige Skulpturen, Kunstverein Munchen im Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany Druckgraphik und Arbeiten auf Papier, Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna, Austria Und das Meer lag da wie Nudeln aus Gold und Silber, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna, Austria Die Menschen können so nett zueinander sein, mussen aber nicht, Galerie Ursula Schurr, Stuttgart, Germany Wir haben Grund zu der Annahme, daß ALLE Avantgardisten im Kopfrechnen schwach, in Religion dagegen sehr gut hatten, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, Germany Und immer rascheln die Bakterien, Galerie Susan Wyss, Zurich, Switzerland 1986 Wie aber enden solche Geschichten, Galerie Grässlin Ehrhardt, Frankfurt, Germany Galerie Crousel Hussenot, Paris, France Half an Hour of Modern Art, Metro Pictures, New York, NY Halbe Stunde moderne Kunst und andereversammelte Werke, Galerie Borgmann Capitain, Cologne, Germany 1985 Forum Kunst, Rottweil, Germany 55 Thesen (Qualität ist der Schatten der Intelligenz) und 1 Skulptur (und verhute auch, daß ich überheblich werde), Galerie Thomas Borgmann, Cologne, Germany Von Händen und Eiern, Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1984 Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Spain La Luta Continua, Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany 1983 Zeichnungen und Linolschnitte, Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany Galerie Helen von der Meij, Amsterdam, Netherlands Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany 1982

4 Wiederholung der Information kompensiert den darüberliegenden Lärm, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany 1981 Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart, Germany SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 Colliding Alien Cargo, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY 2015 The 80s: Figurative Painting in West Germany, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany 2014 Zeichen gegen den Krieg, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany 2013 Collage ou l âge de la colle, Galerie Eva Meyer, Paris, France 2012 Man Ray Dialog mit zeitgenössischer Kunst, Marion Meyer Contemporain, Frankfurt, Germany 2011 Le Paris Bar à Paris, Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris, France 2010 Wahrheit ist Arbeit, Büttner, Kippenberger, Oehlen und ein Werk von Herold, Villa Schöningen, Potsdam, Germany Jeder Kunstler ist ein Mensch Position des Selbstportraits, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany Weisser Schimmel, PhönixHallen, Hamburg, Germany 2009 Miniaturen, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt/M, Germany Büttner, Kippenberger, Albert et Markus Oehlen, Galerie Marion Meyer, Paris, France Männer Frauen, KUNSTRAUM Grässlin und Räume für Kunst, St. Georgen, Germany 2008 MMKK Länderspiel-Kunst im Spiel, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt, Austria Bad Painting good art, MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria Vertrautes Terrain-Collectors Choice, ZKM Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany

5 2006 Goetz meets Falckenberg, Phönix Hallen, Hamburg, Germany Flashback. Eine Revision der Kunst der 80er Jahre, Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel 2005 Vida de una leyenda-marilyn Monroe, Sala de exposiciones, Madrid Mots d ordre mots de passe, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France La nouvelle peinture allemande, Carré d Art Musée d art contemporain, Nîmes, France Rundlederwelten, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany 2004 Obsessive Malerei Ein Ruckblick auf die Neuen Wilden, Museum für Neue Kunst/ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany 2003 Sand in der Vaseline Kunstlerbucher II, Krefelder Kunstmuseen; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt; Neues Museum Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg, Germany Lieber zu viel als zu wenig, ngbk, Berlin, Germany Der Augenblick ist Ewigkeit, KunstHalle Villa Kobe, Halle, Germany 2002 Klopfzeichen-Kunst und Kultur der 80er Jahre in Deutschland Wahnzimmer, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany 2001 Vom Eindruck zum Ausdruck Grässlin Collection, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany Ziviler Ungehorsam, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany Sammlung Falckenberg-Pumphaus, PhönixHallen, Hamburg, Germany 2000 Artistenmetaphysik Friedrich Nietzsche in der Kunst der Nachmoderne, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany 1999 Zoom Ansichten zur deutschen Gegenwartskunst, Sammlung Landesbank Baden- Wurttemberg, Galerie Landesbank Baden Württemberg, Stuttgart/Kunsthalle Kiel 1998 fast forward: image, Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany Die Macht des Alters, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Galerie der Stadt, Stuttgart, Germany 1997 Home Sweet Home, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Deutschlandbilder, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Hamburg Leuchtfeuer, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany 1995

6 Armuts Zeugnisse-Darstellung der Armut in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Fritz- Huser Institut im Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund Heimspiel, Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Grässlin, St.Georgen, Germany 1994 Klemens Gasser, (with Förg, Herold, A. Oehlen, M. Oehlen), Bolzano-Bozen, Italy 1993 Miserere, (with Georg Herold), Kunsthalle Ritter, Klagenfurt, Austria 1992 Malen ist Wahlen, (with M. Kippenberger, A. Oehlen), Kunstverein Munchen, Munich, Germany 1991 Metropolis, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Gullivers Reisen, Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne, Germany Berlin Paris Bar, Galerie Artcurial, Paris, France 1990 Zeichnungen 1, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria Ausgewählte Graphik, (with J. Immendorff, A.R. Penck), Galerie Schurr, Stuttgart, Germany 1989 Natura Naturata, Josh Baer Gallery, New York, NY The BiNational-German Art of the late Eighties, The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, MN, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX Aschenbach Galerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands Museum der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Belgrade, Serbia Neue Figuration-Deutsche Malerei , Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt, Germany 1988 Multiples, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne, Germany Skulpturenprojekte Durr Broken Neon, Galerie Christoph Durr, Munich, Germany Broken Neon, Galerie Sylvana Lorenz, Paris, France Exchange: Ireland-Deutschland, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin, Ireland A la surface de la peinture les années 80, Centre d Art Contemporain, Abbayé St. André, Meymac, Corrèze, France Büttner/Kiecol: Gemeinsame Arbeiten, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne BiNationale/The BiNational, Deutsche/Amerikanische, Germany Kunst der späten achtziger Jahre, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Der Hang zur Architektur in der Malerei der Gegenwart, Deutsches ArchitekturMuseum, Frankfurt Arbeit in Geschichte Geschichte in Arbeit, Kunsthaus und Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany M. Oehlen, A. Oehlen, M. Kippenberger,W. Büttner, Galerie Susan Wyss, Zurich, Switzerland New Prints from Germany, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO

7 1987 Neue Kunst in Hamburg, Kampnagelfabrik, Hamburg, Germany Q.U.I, (with A. Oehlen, M. Oehlen, M. Kippenberger), Villa Arson, Nice, France Broken Neon, Steirischer Herbst 87, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria 1986 Deutsche Malerei der Gegenwart, Galeria Comicos, Lisbon, Portugal Macht und Ohnmacht der Beziehungen, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund Neue deutsche Kunst aus der Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Haus Metternich, Koblenz, Germany Können wir vielleicht mal unsere Mutter wiederhaben (with G. Herold und A. Oehlen), Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Druckgraphik , Grazer Kunstverein, Galerie im Stadthaus, Klagenfurt, Kunsthalle, Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Germany New Visions in Contemporary Art: The RSM Company Collection, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH Die Wahlverwandschaften-Zitate, Steirischer Herbst, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria What about having our mother back, (with Georg Herold and Albert Oehlen), ICA, London, UK 1985 Annemarie-und-Will-Grohmann-Stipendium, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden La nouvelle Biennale de Paris, Paris, France Treppen, Galerie Kammer, Hamburg, Germany Anniottanta, Galeria comunale d Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy studio d, (with A. Oehlen, M. Oehlen, M. Kippenberger), Tubingen, Germany 1984 Wahrheit ist Arbeit (with A. Oehlen und M. Kippenberger), Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany Zwischenbilanz, Neue Galerie am Joanneum, Graz, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Forum für aktuelle, Germany Kunst Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn Wer uberlebt winkt, Bonner Kunstverein, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany Sammlung Metzger, Kunsthalle Budapest, Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway Tiefe Blicke, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany Deutsch-sprechende Galeristinnen, Galerie Six, Friedrich, Munich, Germany Origen y Visión: Nueva Pintura Alemana, Centre Cultural de la Caixa des Pensions, Barcelona, Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico Metro Pictures, (with A. Oehlen, M. Oehlen, M. Kippenberger), New York, NY Von hier aus, Messegelände, Dusseldorf, Germany Treppen, Galerie Gugu Ernesto, Köln, Germany 1983 Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart, Germany Schwerter zu Zapfhähnen, Galerie Peter Pakesch, Wien, Austria Holz und Linolschnitt heute, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, Germany Kunst ist nichts, wenn sie nicht neu ist, Galerie Rolf Ricke, Cologne, Germany Ansatzpunkte kritischer Kunst heute, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany

8 Kunstler aus Deutschland, Kunsthalle Basel, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands Über sieben Brucken mußt Du gehen, Kutscherhaus, Berlin, Germany Die junge Malerei in Deutschland, Galleria d Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy Tendenzen 82, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany 1981 Bildwechsel, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany Junge Kunst aus Westdeutschland 81, Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart, Germany außerordentliche Veranstaltung in Bild und Klang zumthema der Zeit: Aktion Pisskrucke (Geheimdienst am Nächsten), Kunstlerhaus Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Finger für Deutschland, Atelier Jörg Immendorff, Dusseldorf, Germany Muhlheimer Freiheit und interessante Bilder aus Deutschland, Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne, Germany außerordentliche Veranstaltung in Bild und Klang zum Thema der Zeit: Elend, Berlin, Germany Enthemmungsprozesse äußern sich am Anfang immerals gute Laune, Fettstr. 7a., Hamburg, Germany MONOGRAPHIES (SELECTION) Werner Büttner und Albert Oehlen, Dum Dum Nr. 1, 2, 3. Zentralorgan zur Bekämpfung des widerspruchlichen Verhaltens, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold und Albert Oehlen, Facharbeiterficken. Werner Büttner, Georg Herold, Albert Oehlen: Gemeinsame Arbeiten 79/80/81, Hamburg, Galerie Max Hetzler (Hg.), Über sieben Brucken mußt Du gehen. Mußten wir auch Markus Oehlen, Ina Barfuß, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold, Albert Oehlen, Thomas Wachweger, Martin Kippenberger, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 1982 Rechts blinken links abbiegen. Werner Büttner, Albert Oehlen, Ausst.-Kat., Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Berlin, Werner Büttner und Albert Oehlen, Jenseits konstanter Bemuhungen um braven Erfolg, Ausst.-Kat., Produzentengalerie, Hamburg, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Das blaue Männchen von Schnelsen ein Kranker, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Die Probleme des Minigolfs in der europäischen Malerei, Galerie Max Hetzler, Köln, Köln, Werner Büttner, Schrecken der Demokratie, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Galerie Max Hetzler (Hg.), Wer diesen Katalog nicht gut findet muß sofort zum Arzt. Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Ausst.- Kat., Galerie Max Hetzler, Stuttgart, 1983.

9 Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger und Albert Oehlen, Einfuhrung ins Denken, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger und Albert Oehlen, Wahrheit ist Arbeit, Ausst.- Kat., Museum Folkwang, Essen, Essen, Werner Büttner, Schmuck, Cada, Munchen, Werner Büttner und Albert Oehlen, Angst vor Nice. Ludwig s Law, Meterverlag, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold und Albert Oehlen, Können wir vielleicht mal unsere Mutter wiederhaben [engl.:what about having our mother back], Ausst.- Kat., Kunstverein, Hamburg, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Kellner, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Havana Moon, Maximilian- Verlag, Munchen, Werner Büttner, In Praise of Tools and Women, Meterverlag, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, La luta continua. Drei Beispiele, Galerie Max Hetzler, Köln, Köln, Werner Büttner, Viva Büttner, Galerie Max Hetzler, Köln, Köln, Werner Büttner, Ein Happen für die Wissenden, Meterverlag, Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Und das Meer lag da wie Nudeln aus Gold und Silber, Ritter, Klagenfurt, Kunstverein Munchen, Museum Folkwang Essen (Hg.), Werner Büttner. Bilder und einige Skulpturen, Ausst.-Kat., Kunstverein Munchen als Gast im Museum Villa Stuck, Munchen, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Le Radius Kronenbourg. Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie de la Villa, Arson, Nice, Werner Büttner und Hubert Kiecol, Deutsche Städte vor dem Wiederaufbau, Hamburg, Werner Büttner Stilleben, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Grässlin-Ehrhardt, Frankfurt/M., Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Spendhaus Reutlingen (Hg.), Werner Büttner. Das wichtige Schwarzweiß, Ausst.-Kat., Städtisches Kunstmuseum Spendhaus, Reutlingen, Werner Büttner, Kampf dem Verderb, Jänner Galerie, Wien, Werner Büttner, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, Zwei Reden ins Gebohnerte gehalten an der HFBK zu Hamburg, Fama & Fortune Bulletin, Nr. 10, Pakesch & Schlebrugge, Wien, Februar Helmut Draxler, Hedwig Saxenhuber, Renate Kern und Dietmar Stegemann (Hg.), Malenist Wahlen. Büttner, Kippenberger, Oehlen, Ausst.-Kat., Kunstverein, Munchen, Edition Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, Her Werner Büttner und Georg Herold, Miserere, Ausst.-Kat., Kunsthalle und Galerie Ritter, Klagenfurt, Ritter, Klagenfurt, Werner Büttner, Vom Raufhandel der Seelen um dero Frieden, Ausst.-Kat., Kunstraum Daxer, Munchen, Werner Büttner und Daniel Richter, Toll, Ausst.-Kat., Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Werner Büttner "Heimspiel". Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Grässlin , Ausst.- Kat., Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen, Schwarzwald, St. Georgen, Werner Büttner, Ratiopharmaka, aber auch Herzmittel, und für die Augeneine bekömmliche Tinktur, Peter Pakesch und Johannes Schlebrgge (Hg.), Fama & Fortune Bulletin, Nr. 28, Wien, Mai Thomas Groetz (Hg.), Werner Büttner. Gemälde und Skulpturen aus den 80er Jahren, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Holzwarth-Publ., Berlin, Uta Grosenick (Hg.), Werner Büttner. Verkehrte Welt, Taschen, Köln, 2003.

10 Polizeichef Hegel, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt/M., Stadt Osnabruck und Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche Osnabruck (Hg.), Werner Büttner. Kompromat, Ausst.-Kat., Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche Osnabruck, Rash, Bramsche, Werner Büttner, El baile de los parásitos, Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Madrid, Werner Büttner. "Wetterfester Schmetterling", Ausst.-Kat., Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt/M., Werner Büttner, Lohn des Schweigens, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Harald Falckenberg (Hg.), Wahrheit ist Arbeit, Büttner, Kippenberger, Oehlen und ein Werk von Herold, Ausst.-Kat., Villa Schöningen, Potsdam, 2010, Textem, Hamburg, Werner Büttner. Die Avantgarde von hinten, Ausst.-Kat., Marion Meyer Contemporain, Paris,, RECORDS Werner Büttner, Diedrich Diederichsen, Albert Oehlen und Markus Oehlen, Kirche der Ununterschiedlichkeit, Doppel LP, Werner Büttner, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen und A.R. Penck, Die Rache der Erinnerung, LP, Werner Büttner und Albert Oehlen, Mayo Thompson, Disco Doubt, LP, Werner Büttner und Ferdinand Fux, Lousy Days Are Here to Stay, LP, PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Fonds national d Art contemporain, Paris Frac Poitou Charentes, Angoulême-Linazay Wer uberlebt winkt, Bonner Kunstverein, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin Kunstmuseum Walter im Glaspalast, Augsburg Sammlung Falckenberg, Kulturstiftung Phoenix Art, Hamburg Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe Kunstraum Grässlin, St. Georgen

11 On View Editors Picks: 7 Art Events to See in New York This Week Your guide to the week ahead. Sarah Cascone, October 25, 2016 Thursday, October 27 Saturday, December 3 Werner Büttner, (Eine Lehre vom Menschen Kann Nicht Wissenschaftlich (A Theory of Humanity Cannot Be Scientific) (2016). Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Gallery. 6. Werner Büttner Poor Souls at Marlborough Chelsea The first solo New York exhibition of Werner Büttner s work since 1986, Poor Souls features new collage and painting that mashes up a wide array of styles and imagery, from Winston Churchill to a bewigged daschund, while displaying witty (if often weighty) titles.

12 There is a humorous, but palpably dark edge to the work. Büttner confronts issues including history, philosophy, and mythology, as well as grief and mourning. The disparate imagery, where a moody palette dominates, create a pleasant disequilibrium according to a description from the gallery. Location: 545 West 25th Street Price: Free Time: Opening reception Tuesday, October 27, 6:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m.; Tuesday Saturday, 10:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. Eileen Kinsella

13 What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week NOV. 10, 2016 But on the seventh day a bit of peace and quiet..., by Werner Büttner, at Marlborough Chelsea. Credit Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Chelsea. Werner Büttner, Poor Souls By ROBERTA SMITH Postwar Germany has never lacked interesting artists. One of them, Werner Büttner, arrived in New York in 1983, showing at Metro Pictures with his compatriots Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen and Markus Oehlen; their hamhanded, irreverent canvases skewered painting and German Neo-Expressionism.

14 After a solo show at Metro in 1986, Mr. Büttner all but disappeared from New York. Now he is back with his second gallery solo, Poor Souls, at Marlborough Chelsea. It reveals an artist who seems slightly bored with his own shtick and is taking shortcuts to underscore painting s commodity status. Closely spaced and nearly all the same size, the 17 works here seem to come off a production line. Combining supposedly found images of figures against solid backgrounds, they have an arbitrary, Surrealist air. Colors are mostly tamped down; brushy but rotelike surfaces vary little. A need to avoid seduction and to look tough dominates. German clichés, like sausages and Dachshunds and a swastika, make appearances. The mechanical, filled-in nature of these works is clarified with a display of collages on which some of the paintings here are closely based. They feature figures cut from magazines and set against more images or solid painted grounds. The best paintings might look stronger if seen without the others. As it is, you can decide if the show makes yet again a useful point about paintings being calculatedly churned out for the market or if Mr. Büttner has simply decided to take the easy way out. Werner Büttner Poor Souls Marlborough Chelsea 545 West 25th Street Through Dec. 3

15 Legendary German artist Werner Büttner works on view in NY October 28, :32 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Marlborough Chelsea presents Poor Souls by legendary German artist Werner Büttner. Poor Souls marks his first New York exhibition since 1986, including new collage and painting that showcase a wide-range of intelligence and cunningly dark but empathic humor, Art Daily reports. Painted with a breezy confidence that complicates their gravity, these canvases tackle weighty issues of history, philosophy, mythology, grief and mourning. This is to say that there is real empathy beneath the surface, and that the paintings are packed with humanity. With the courage and wherewithal to incorporate a diversity of subjects, from Winston Churchill to a bewigged dachshund, Büttner scrambles hierarchies provoking a pleasant disequilibrium. A moody palette dominates generally, and surprising bands of drizzled black or white pigment often disrupt the naturalistic depicted space with flung drips of gestural abstraction telltale ejaculatory signatures to further destabilize the surface reading. Leading with language, the paintings unforgettable titles and the frequent presence of text/image combinations, perpetuate a casually pedagogic atmosphere befitting a long-time art professor. If the lessons are obliquely proffered and veer toward the gnomic, they are all the more powerful for it. The learned poetics are well-earned from decades in the desert of freedom the unforgiving artistic terrain explored in the early 1980s by Büttner (and his Junge Wilde comrades such as Martin Kippenberger) through abandoning the compass of conventional taste and technique. In the current anything-goes climate of contemporary art production, it can be difficult to comprehend the break from tradition that this stylistic rejection ushered in, but we are living with its effects. Büttner s paintings bear the great responsibility that this freedom confers. His commitment to it is uninterrupted by a fixed style or consistent position, though the paintings are recognizably his. Their consistency is borne of an irreverence in tone, ethical point of view and a meticulously disguised complexity. In uncertain times, we need a sage to plumb the depths of our collective psyche connecting us to an intellectual and personal history that help make sense of an irrational present. Werner Büttner is just the person for the job.

16 Werner Büttner was born in Jena, Germany, in He moved to Berlin in 1968, where he studied law at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1979 he exhibited at Kippenberger s Büro project as part of the renowned exhibition Elend, and in 1982 was part of the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition Zeitgeist, which was considered a definitive survey of painting at that time. In 2013 the artist was the subject of a major retrospective, Werner Büttner: Gemeine Wahrheiten [Common Truths], at ZKM, Karlsruhe, which travelled to the Weserburg Museum of Contemporary Art, Bremen, in Hatje Cantz published a major monograph in conjunction with the exhibition. This year two major monographs were published by Black Dog, dedicated to Büttner s painting and collage respectively, bringing his complex use of language in English for the first time. Büttner has been a Professor of Painting at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg since 1989.

17 WERNER BÜTTNER S LOOTING EYE German artist Werner Büttner is releasing a new book, the first published overview of his collage work, entitled My Looting Eye. A fan of the pritt-stick aesthetic, Büttner places everyday items in unusual settings, often with witty and amusing results, such as a the lacy red bra hung casually across a horse s eyes. With an almost Dali-esque appearance, each collage is a happy burst of vintage colour, revealing a slice of the artist s surreal and rebellious side that emits a questioning nature behind its light hearted front. Out on the 28th, the book will be published by Black Dog Publishing and Marlborough London.

18 12 MUST-SEE ART SHOWS OPENING THIS WEEK "But on the seventh day a bit of peace and quiet," Werner Buttner Marlborough Chelsea (545 West 25th Street) has the first New York solo show since 1986 by the German artist Werner Buttner opening on Thursday, October 27, 6 to 8 p.m., and up until December 3. The exhibit, "Poor Souls," will include collages and new paintings that showcase his "dark but empathic humor" and "perpetuate a casually pedagogic atmosphere."

19 WERNER BÜTTNER S LOOTING EYE ART BY: CRESSIDA This month sees the publication of two new books on the work of German artist Werner Büttner the first entitledcoincidence In Splendour takes a look at his paintings, and the second My Looting Eye his collages. Why is that a big deal? Well, considering that these are the first books on Büttner s practice to ever be published in English, it means his work is about to become accessible to an entirely new audience. See? Exciting.

20 For those unfamiliar with Büttner s oeuvre, here s a little background. Whilst predominantly known as a painter, he started a series of collages in the early naughties to confidently and pointedly address the nature of composition and subject matter in art practice. By enabling viewers to reconsider artistic conventions and norms, Werner Büttner also addresses social conformity and the ideology of rebellion (interestingly, Büttner originally trained as a lawyer). Büttner decontextualizes everyday objects to explore the power of meaning in a visually-stimulating and dynamic way. Explaining his seemingly unpredictable, idiosyncratic style he comments: the artist is a sieve, sifting his environment. Information nuggets of precisely the required size get stuck in the sieve. Now he can work. My Looting Eye explores the method that lies behind the madness. Werner Büttner s My Looting Eye and Coincidence in Splendor launch on 28th January, 6-8pm at Marlborough Contemporary London. Published by Black Dog Publishing. Main image: Werner Büttner, Abandoned, 2008, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

21 Pritt Stick and Provocation: Werner Büttner's Collages Maisie Skidmore January 11, 2016 Flying hippos and bras as blindfolds in his new book, the German artist presents a cohesive collection of his subversive, funny compositions Various by Werner Büttner Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London Although principally known for his extensive work in paint, German artist Werner Büttner has a veritable cache of collage work to his name, too. The pieces are witty and subversive, placing the everyday and the commonplace into unexpected environments to create ironic plates a lacy red bra hung nonchalantly over the unseeing eyes of a horse, for example, or a larger-than-life fish head thrusting out of the ground in a forest otherwise populated only by trees. The lighthearted compositions create a pointed alternative to the loaded wordplay which often underpins Büttner s work in paint an offshoot of the opinionated German artist s rebellious nature, and his penchant for breaking social taboos with a biting, questioning nature. Born in Jena in 1954, the artist produced bold, large-scale paintings and murals

22 alongside a number of essays, often merging the two media to produce new levels of irony and provocation. This month, Black Dog Publishing releases the very first substantial overview of Büttners collage practice, entitled My Looting Eye the loot, in this instance, being the wealth of alternative meaning the inventive artist uncovers in his daily life, and the publication itself a cohesive and often provocative trove of works. We d argue there s no better remedy to an early January morning than a dose of the surreal and the unexpected. #AnOtherHappyMonday The Struggle Itself Towards the Heights is Enough to Fill a Man's Heart, 2003Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

23 You Have the Clock, We Have the Time (Taliban Wisdom), 2011 Contemporary, London Courtesy the artist and Marlborough The Splendour of Trumpery, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

24 Masked Gluttons, 2012 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London In Praise of Forbidding, 2007 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

25 Fun Fatal, 2012 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London Dictatorship of the Known, 2013 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

26 Death is a scandal that befits us..., 2012 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London Contrast, the crowbar of the given..., 2012 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

27 Cockaigne of filth, 2004 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London Armies of sadness..., 2013Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

28 Abandoned, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London Werner Büttner s My Looting Eye is out on January 28, 2016, published by Black Dog Publishing in collaboration with Marlborough Contemporary London.

29 Werner Büttner: The Marking of the Abyss Werner Büttner: The Marking of the Abyss, 2012, courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Contemporary First London show of the German painter since Looking at Werner Büttner s painting, The Marking of the Abyss (pictured), you can immediately see why its title was also chosen for the show as a whole. Painted in the German artist s typically scrubby, distressed style, it depicts the kind of mountainous, wistfully rugged setting you d normally associate with a Romantic-era painting but with the addition of a lone dog cocking its leg against a tree, relieving itself into the shadowy chasm below. Quite literally, then, the painting s a pisstake a way of puncturing

30 grandiose, overblown notions about sublime and ineffable nature. Yet it also makes a serious point about our continual yearning for such exalted or numinous experiences in the way that the dog s gesture can also be read as an act of appreciation, a kind of crude communion. It s this combination of the jokey and the serious, the whimsical and the solemn, that defines Büttner s work. Different paintings critique different ideas of transcendence. There s nature, again, in The Days Are Running Away Like Noble Steeds Over the Hills, with its equine jumble of decrepit, pasty, dribbly shapes. Or there s religion, in Culture Scene, with its three saints drunkenly giving fascist salutes. Sometimes the irony feels slightly obvious, as in the giant letters LOVE surrounded by fornicating skeletons; while in other pieces the meaning feels obscure, even though the image itself is powerfully direct, as in the bouquet of flowers sprouting from a hare. These sorts of surreal juxtapositions reflect Büttner s process he starts off by combining found images into collages before working some up into final paintings. Yet some of the best pieces here have been kept at the smaller, more concentrated collage stage. A teddy bear superimposed against melting candle wax ( Homemade Tears ), a snowman upended on its head ( Doctor, How Am I? ) these images feel caustic, sarcastic, yet at the same time terribly poignant. Gabriel Coxhead

31 INTERVIEW - 23 MAY 2013 Melodic Thinking BY JAN VERWOERT On the occasion of his retrospective in Karlsruhe, Werner Büttner talks to Jan Verwoert and Jörg Heiser about polemics and punchlines in more than three decades of work Werner Büttner, Sekretierer, 1990, Oil on canvas (courtesy: Sammlung Günther Förg) Jan Verwoert Walking around your retrospective Gemeine Wahrheiten (Base Truths) in Karlsruhe, one feels the weight of more than three decades West Germany, world politics, private life How have the passing times outside your door related to the rhythm of things in your work? Werner Büttner I once wrote: the artist is a sieve, sifting his environment. Information nuggets of precisely the required size get stuck in the sieve. Now

32 he can work. According to this description, it s a process of methodical intuition an obvious contradiction in terms. But it has never been my ambition to stumble through life free of contradictions. Such drudgery can be left to scientists and lawyers. People like us can indulge equally in truth and its base opposite. With the help of methodical intuition, I make pictures of the way I experience life. Many people only make pictures of the way they experience art. An error. Who could possibly be interested in that? For 40,000 years, humans have been describing and making pictures of the way they experience life. They tell of the knowledge, passions and errors of their times. They tell of things that have touched them in a meaningful way. Unlike science, whose results age and are discarded on a day-to-day basis, experience of life, if well executed, does not age. It is kept and it helps new sentient beings to find their bearings in the chaos of external phenomena. JV What triggers a response? How do you decide to make one thing into a single large painting, and something else into a series of drawings on paper? WB Once my methodical intuition has revealed, denounced, betrayed a phenomenon to me that can be used in a coherent and meaningful way, I usually know the correct material straight away, the material called for by this subject, theme, idea. And in most cases, the original idea includes the appropriate size for the work. Bombastic or modest, there are hundreds of reasons for the one or the other, and intuition knows them all. And just to sow further confusion, one more little thing: I m not a methodical thinker, I m a melodic thinker. Werner Büttner, _Stilleben mit sibirischem Kinderwagen_, 1987, Oil on canvas (courtesy: Deichtorhallen Hamburg / Sammlung Falckenberg; photograph: Egbert Haneke)

33 JV How do these melodies work? Some are played just once, as in the painting Stilleben mit sibirischem Kinderwagen (Still life with Siberian pram) from 1987: boldly rendered in oil, olive-green, otherwise black and white. While other melodies are modulated, sometimes over many years. The series of drawings Schrecken der Demokratie (Disasters of Democracy) began in 1979 and ended in How did you come to frame the series in advance with a title, a format, a stamp? What causes your intuition to say: right, that s it, last drawing, end of series? Werner Büttner, Schrecken der Demokratie, , Mixed media on paper (courtesy: Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen; photograph:onuk) WB The series ended with the disappearance of the Desastres de la Democratia stamp in the year of our Lord And as you can read in a text by my friend Harald Falckenberg, I m arguing that I came to light exactly 1999 years after the murder of Caesar. My friend Falckenberg contests this. But even a brilliant capitalist gets his sums wrong once in a while. The stamp was neither lost nor misplaced. Neither was it stolen, set alight, or crumbled by my own hand. It disappeared. Objects and people do this. That fact must be accepted, like so many things. One does not welcome it, but as a side effect of one s thrownness, it must be allowed to pass.

34 Werner Büttner, Erste Versuche, 1980 Mixed media on income tax form (courtesy: the artist; photograph:onuk) Jörg Heiser Could you nonetheless try to outline some of the hundreds of reasons for choosing one approach over another? Take an early work like the baby birds squawking for food in their nest, drawn on an income tax form from 1975 (Erste Versuche, First Attempts 1980), and then a large oil painting of cavalrymen dashing away, Die Avantgarde von Hinten (The avant-garde from behind, 2011). Tender beginnings, late conclusions. For all the obvious differences, is there a meta-method at work here, constantly scanning your own oeuvre for things not yet said and things not yet shown?

35 Werner Büttner, _Die Avantgarde von hinten_, 2011, Oil on canvas, (courtesy: the artist; photograph: Egbert Haneke) WB What do you want ideology, tradition, tears? René Magritte undeniably led a stuffy, conventional existence in Brussels: Never a drop of oil paint on the carpet? No one denies this either. Throughout his lousy life, he had to say, no, I don t paint dreams. Read his 800-page self-justification. He said what was not said, he pointed to what was not shown. JH Okay, let s try another approach. In art and in the world, irony, parody, the grotesque, satirical techniques as a whole have their history and their pioneers. Where do you see yourself in relation to this history leaving aside the major figures you ve mentioned in the past, Aristophanes, Erasmus, Laurence Sterne? And what about the present with its talk of post-irony and its unease with the distancing gesture of irony? WB I m suspicious of the word post. Too many concepts have tried to adorn themselves with it as harbingers of the end of time. People still live and people still die. Cowardice, stupidity and bad art live on in high style. There can be no diagnosis of a post or a pre. There is only perpetual misconception. Irony is the technique for holding the world in all its sordidness at arm s length. No post or pre here either. Each individual stands alone, in his own time, in front of his own pile of shit and must decide whether to stir it up, ignore it, or swallow it down. The names you mention are good names. Aristophanes crowned stupidity. Erasmus crowned folly. And Sterne crowned the perpetuity of stupidity and folly. After that, my contributions were just sweet nothings.

36 JV You once wrote: Reality must be subjected to counter-viewpoints. Is this a call to arms? Can irony as a technique in the struggle with the world s sordidness be passed on and taught? The art academy as a technical university for ways of coping with life? WB Many of my favourite colleagues and teachers from our cultural past have taken part in the project of counter-viewpoints. Think of James Ensor and his method of masterfully denouncing the human and material trumpery of Belgium. Or think of Kafka, Joyce, Beckett: that wasn t about enduring reality, as a well-behaved accomplice. That was resistance, counter-attack, sometimes even vendetta. The list of counter-viewers is long, while that of the accomplices of what merely exists is simply never-ending. And yes, of course this battle can be taught and learned. We are all born empty, with nothing but a few random genes and obsolete instincts. Only a few have the misfortune to be born rich. They are stuffed full in advance and have to watch over and feed off their inheritance forever. But the rest of us are empty and free and can piece ourselves together out of the ruins and works of the past. We can try, with the help of our cultural heritage, to become human, thus avoiding blunted idiotic existence. There s plenty of material for pedagogical sermons. Antiquity s three demands alone learn to live, learn to read, learn to die are enough to keep students occupied to bachelor level, if not longer. JH How ruthless must or may this urge towards counter-viewpoints and pedagogical sermons be? At the risk of self-righteousness, where does it leave the welcoming, sociable cheerfulness that is present as a gesture in your punchlines and pictures, in the act of looking and laughing together? WB There are few things I despise more than the calculated seriousness so widely displayed in the art world. Seriousness is the mask of the frivolous. It wants to force its audience into virtual consternation or reverence. It s not even a stylistic device, it s bluff and fraud and, what s more, it s meaningless. Meaningless because it can only lead to submission or a hasty retreat. Dialogue or negotiation are not on the menu. Cheerfulness is a different kind of mask. It aims to seduce, not to inflict violence. It shows the tragic side of a phenomenon with a laugh, and without maliciously suggesting a solution. It is a leader that detests steering. It shows solidarity, resists ideology, reviles torture and is sustained by its inherent melancholy the exact opposite of frivolity, then. This cheerfulness of mine sometimes expresses itself in blanket denigrations of unwitting parties. As in the foreword to my book Schrecken der Demokratie (1983): One can thus be glad when, like a rapturous revelation, the following words rise from one s pictures: I m an arsehole, but you are arseholes, too.

37 JH An exhibition poster of yours from 1985 says, All I want is a warm spot from which to gun people down for a good cause. Does this not constitute a paradoxical linking of both impulses the counter-viewing polemical and the cheerful? WB Above all, the gun people down quote is a denunciation of any selfrighteous ideology that believes it is entitled to murder. I avoid the charge of self-righteousness by claiming to be such a murderous ideologue myself. And the very mention of a warm spot undermines the statement and acquits me. But the warm spot also denounces any search for warm spots by selfrighteous, sub-sophisticated creatures with human faces. And finally, the murderous ideology is rendered truly silly by the connection with warm spot. The whole sentence, then, is a perfidious, multi-layered paradox. Life itself appeared in the world as a paradox and it is logical to respond to life with more paradoxes. Jean Améry, who killed himself, defined the life of the human monad as the construction of a house that is promptly demolished on its completion. So if life resorts to the weapon of paradox, anyone not wishing to sidestep the duel can only resort to the same weapon, for he will die by the sword of paradox in any case. Which brings us to absurdity in the third degree, if I have been keeping count correctly. JV In his introduction to the Gemeine Wahrheiten catalogue, Peter Weibel describes a central aspect of your work: you liberate commentary from the function of mere accessory to the art itself supplementary exegesis and turn it into an artistic medium in its own right. Every work as a comment, because truth is work. This takes the wind out of the sails of the commentary trade and traditional art interpretation. This tactic, Weibel argues, aims and is he quoting you here? to leave the opponent no room for interpretation. Who are these opponents? The representatives of false seriousness? Or people who ask questions like this one? WB Leaving no room for interpretation is a quote from Diedrich Diederichsen, from a text he wrote about us (Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen and myself), published in the early 1980s. Diederichsen dared and still dares to pass judgement. Many broadsheet critics, on the other hand, presumably shocked by art s triumphant progress, have become cautious and rudely withhold judgement. Even in the face of hair-raising aberrations. Annoyingly, one must assume that the American maxim of you can t argue with success has prevailed. Just as the American maxim of, an exhibition must be able to be viewed and understood in seven minutes has won out. Otherwise the Berlin Gallery Weekend would be an impossible challenge. In a paradoxical and erratic world, one can only try to become as self-sufficient as possible. Avoiding dependencies, loving and hating as little as possible,

38 and training the imperturbability of the spirit. Autarky and ataraxia. Providing commentary as part of the work, thus gently influencing interpretation, is a form of autarky. But it is also a form of generosity towards the impoverished commentary trade. I also think there are too many non-aggression pacts in the intellectual sphere. JV The harsh tone of disputes over art s meaning or lack of meaning in the 1980s has in recent times given way to a new friendliness and familiarity. In contrast to this, how do you think cultivated antagonism might look today? WB A good opponent is known to promote one s growth as a person. Which is probably why they are so rare and fleeting. My students regularly ask about possible opponents. But in a time when disputes are denied or euphemized, it s hard to confidently identify a target that s worth attacking. I can only point to the age-old poster promoting a war on stupidity and say: the enemy is still at large So far, each generation has failed to behead this hydra. It is quite astonishing how much stupidity this paradoxical life nourishes and cherishes and allows to reproduce. One almost might think it s the survival of the stupid. Translated by Nicholas Grindell

39 Hamburg Reviews Werner Büttner DEICHTORHALLEN HAMBURG December 2003 Zdenek Felix had long since presented Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger at the Deichtorhallen. To close his directorship, Felix invited Werner Büttner to mount a comprehensive retrospective and complete this Friends Trilogy in Hamburg. No artschool product, Büttner came to painting at Oehlen s suggestion. Or better, he was provoked into painting, a medium that did not enjoy high standing in their eyes, being too burdened with ideas like sublimity and truth. But painting, as we well know, can also be summoned onto the canvas by destructive desires and the revaluing of values. Büttner s images, which run against the grain of the good brushstroke, attest to an obsessive desire for erasure, an impulse to subject redemptive ideologies to a painterly torture. Büttner has always cultivated a kind of iconography of the miserable and pathetic. Not infrequently, artists have started out representationally only to head out to the greener pastures of abstraction in their old age. As a gross generalization, this stereotypical artist s trajectory of classical redemption moves from darkness to light. With Büttner, though, such noble ambitions are scarce. Painting as worship, as he describes the tendency toward painterly transfiguration, is instead relegated to the realm of vanities. Thus his self-portrait, Selbst als Karrierefred (Self as Career Guy), 1996, depicts him climbing up a corporate ladder composed of a colorful geometric pattern whose affinity to Color Field painting is obvious. A dig at abstraction, even if Büttner is only playing games with this suggestion but the observer must draw his or her own conclusions. In any case, Büttner remains true to representation, to darkness. At most I shine to make the darkness visible, he declares in an interview in the exhibition catalogue. And where is it dark? I meet the sublime, he says in a different context, in dark and dreary places and store its worn-out face in my memory. The worn-out faces of the sublime

40 keep reappearing here: in the form of humorous everyday events (Der Künstler im Zeitalter der Fernbedienung [The Artist in the Age of Remote Control], 1990), in views of minor and peripheral images (Wurstmänade [Maenad of Sausage], 1997), or seen quite materially in the large-format computer-scanned collages Büttner began making in the 90s. All products of pure junk images, from originals like magazines, flyers, packing material, and ads, these images, interestingly enough, are what Büttner admits as purification. In them the former image-dross undergoes a rebirth as chatty or mocking or ruminant metaphors. The godfather of this unexpected collision of images was Lévi- Strauss and his concept of bricolage. Two of Büttner s painting series, Desastres de la democracía, not quite Goya s words and Versuche zur Emblematisierung von Dasein (Attempts to Emblematize Existence), , offer a nearly self-contained oeuvre-within-anoeuvre. In them Büttner dusts off the palette of the human condition and portrays the misery of the welfare state and the lovely and mean contradictions of life in general, through diminutive but nonetheless rhetorically eloquent and graphically precise pictorial fancies. With these works, he also presents himself as untimely, something he strives to be as an artist. And, like other recent works, they show Büttner s continual expansion on his motifs. His initial argument with conventional leftist ideology and pious artistic obfuscation has given way to a view in all directions a view like that of Diogenes, greeting its audience pleasurably and smugly with derision, mockery, laughter, wit, and misleading questions. Wolf Jahn Translated from German by Sara Ogger.

41 Vienna Werner Büttner CHRISTINE KÖNIG GALERIE Schleifmühlgasse 1A May 8, 2001 June 23, 2001 Once a week everyone shamefacedly disposes of their bundles of printed matter and hopes for recycling. These bundles are, however, full of respectable motifs that have fallen in with the wrong crowd, respectable motifs on pizzeria flyers and amid the braggadocio of utility companies, amid gossip rags and tabloids and the mass mailings of fake-food vendors. So writes Werner Büttner in a text that accompanies his new images and collages. After many years of being absent from Viennese galleries (at least no one-person shows), it s wonderful to discover that Büttner hasn t lost his sharp insights into social weakness and cliché. With scissors, ruler, and glue, he isolates images and motifs, freeing them from their commercial context, and arranges them on paper. He then scans and enlarges them to fit different formats. On occasion, he appends writing. For example, beneath a large, almost isolated eye of an animal in one work, one reads: and then one beholds the light of day. In front of day stands a lapidary wheelbarrow Granted, this is no longer as directly political as his images from the 80s. Rather, it s poetic, and verges on being cryptic. But it s also refreshingly independent. Büttner looks with eyes wide open at the image worlds of our time. Sabine B. Vogel Und dann erblickt man den Tag, 2000.