1: Can you tell me about your background? And what was the first artwork you made?

I MADE A PAINTING IN 1994 DURING MY TIME AS A CIVIL SERVANT IN A HAMBURG HOSPITAL AFTER I HAD SEEN “THE GREEN BALLET” BY ASGER JORN IN THE MUSEUM THERE. YEARS LATER I CAN SEE FACES IN THIS PAINTING SHOWING MY FATHER, MOTHER, GRANDFATHER, THE FACE OF MY DEAD BROTHER OR MY OWN FACE.

2: What is more important to you regarding your work: The process. The final visual outcome. The material? Or something else?

IMPORTANT IS ONLY THE IMAGE. THERE IS NO PROCESS OR PROGRESS. THERE IS ONLY ENTITY, ESSENCE, DESTRUCTION, ENDLESS ANNIHILATION AND LOVE.

3: The N-Bilder, and the progression from the more color-full and figurative works, can you tell more about them and what made you go in that direction?

WHAT I DID MIGHT BE A PEACEFUL REGRESSION TOWARDS “N”, “N” IS A BEAM, THRESHOLD, A DEADLY FREQUENCY OF LIFE AND REVELATION.

4: What influences you?

MY INFLUENCE IS MATISSE, ONLY ART AND MY ONGOING VISION OF INFLAMMABLE LIGHT.

5: What would you ask an artist in a Q&A and who?

I HAVE NO QUESTIONS TO ANYONE.

6: Can you let us in on some of the future projects, works?

I WILL STAY HOME. I WILL GO BACK TO THE SHACK. I AM FRIEDRICH HÖLDERLIN. I WILL SEE THE LIGHT AGAIN.

Link to –  Foundation for Contemporary Art Weidingen

Stuttgart Kunstmuseum Scharpff Collection

Link to artist page

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The N-paintings seem to lack “color” but the often thinly painted black and white forms are not monochromes. André Butzer is a colorist, “I will always be a colourist and nothing else” and the color choice of black and white is the result of the inclusion, or acceptance, of all existing hues; the destination, or starting point, of color potential.

André Butzer (b.1973, Germany) is one of Germany’s most relevant contemporary artists with over 220 worldwide exhibitions including prestigious institutions such as MUMOK, the Kunsthalle Nuernberg, and works in the collections of Stuttgart Kunstmuseum, MOCA Los Angeles, LACMA, Sammlung Goetz and the Scharpff Collection, amongst many others. Butzer lives and works in Rangsdorf, near Berlin.

Sommerausstellung – Kunst in Weidingen – 3 – 31. August 2014

Ohne Titel, 2014  Öl auf Leinwand, 300 x 200 cm

Ohne Titel, 2014  Öl auf Leinwand, 340 x 280 cm

See more at: Carbon 12 Gallery, Dubai/U.A.E. – March – April 2014

Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo/Japan – March – April 2014

Wohnung Tom Biber, Berlin/Germany – (with Tom Biber, Thomas Groetz) – April 2014

Neue Galerie Gladbeck, Gladbeck/Germany – (with Thomas Arnolds, Michael Biber, Albert Oehlen, Matthias Schaufler, Philipp Schwalb, Thomas Winkler, Ulrich Wulff) – May – July 2014

Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich/Germany – May – June 2014

Kunstverein Heppenheim, Heppenheim/Germany – (with Thomas Winkler) – June 2014

Galerie Bernd Kugler, Innsbruck/Austria – (with Marcel Hüppauff, Daniel Mendel-Black, Philipp Schwalb) – July – August 2014

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart/Germany – Scharpff Collection – July – November 2014

Stiftung zur Förderung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen, Weidingen/Germany – August 2014

Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz/Austria – (with Christian Eisenberger) – August – September 2014

Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen/Germany – Wo ist hier? #1: Malerei und Gegenwart – September – November 2014

Galerie Hammelehle und Ahrens, Cologne/Germany – HYPERIONS JUGEND – (with Christian Eisenberger, Cris Kirkwood, Maja Körner, David Schutter, Philipp Schwalb) – September 2014

Galerie Bernd Kugler, Innsbruck/Austria – November 2014 – January 2015

Artist Website

Gallery Carbon12 Dubai

See more by Andre Butzer >>

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At Metro Pictures, Chelsea – New York, NY, USA , October 12, 2013

“The new N Bilder paintings by André Butzer are chromatic horizontal and vertical variations of one another, with nuances subtly differentiated by obfuscated color gradations. Each painting is an ornamental matrix, a materialized picture screen with apertures. They further his investigation of pure color and light begun in the N-Bild series of the past few years. “N” is Butzer lexicon; “N” is binary, a non-denominational marker signifying a phenomenological presence. “N” is a Zen koan both empty and active at the same time. “N” is a pietà, the vertical bar upholds the weight of the horizontal one as a body. “N” is an elusive state of being, a contrariness whereby the maximum amount of expansive space is conveyed with the least amount of visual information. Embedded within these planar forms are the intense color spectrums found in the bustling color palette of his previous output. On the surface, the mercurial egg tempera pigment has been worked up into a highly refined emulsion. The paintings tonality offer a calm antidote to the cliché’s of expressionist angst and are free of representational limitations. All of the well-known cartoonish Butzer signifiers are now dissolved, yielding into a zone of stability and a state of grace.”

Text from Patricia Low Gallery

Link to Artist Page

Link to more pictures of N Bilder by Andre Butzer

The post Andre Butzer – Upcoming Show in New York 2013 appeared first on Copenhagen Contemporary.

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