Marlborough is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by German artist Werner Büttner. This will be Büttner’s first solo show at the gallery and his first major presentation in London since his seminal exhibition with Georg Herold and Albert Oehlen at the ICA in 1986.
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.
In Die Markierung des Abgrunds, 2012, which translates as The Marking of the Abyss and lends the show its title, 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 addition to nine large-scale paintings, the exhibition will feature a number of collages and Pictor prints. Büttner has worked with collage for the past fourteen years, using the medium to create what he describes as something ‘crazy, unseen and unbelievable.’ While he uses collage as the starting point for his paintings, they are not only preparatory studies but a strategy that enables juxtaposing realities and unexpected associations, which are characteristic of his extensive oeuvre.
Works
