André Butzer fused European expressionism with American popular culture, painting his way through the artistic and political extremes of the 20th century. With diverse influences, including Friedrich Hölderlin, Edvard Munch, Walt Disney and Henry Ford, he developed a fictional universe around the space colony NASAHEIM.
In NASAHEIM reside the Peace-Siemens, a friendly main form that combines utopian ideas with the economic thinking of burgeoning mass consumerism, while a figure like the Wanderer offers romantic projections, or the Shame-Human reflections of the political past. This universe lends thematic depth to the canvases, with the characters acting as protagonists of paint, surrounding the N-House, home of all colors, in the style the artist has dubbed "Science-Fiction Expressionism."
A few years into the new millennium, the colors took on a life of their own and grew into abstract paintings with lines floating freely across the canvas. Starting in 2010, Butzer explored the fundamental dimensions and possibilities of painterly expression in the seemingly black surfaces of his N-Paintings. At this point, Butzer moved to California in 2018, where he painted outdoors year-round. The resulting works are brimming with colorful freshness, an extended family of lines and figurations with new poses, refined by their experiences at the extreme edge of abstraction.
This coffee table book covers Butzer's entire body of work from 1999 to 2023, giving the progression of works an almost musical drive of development, return and new beginnings. The plates are interspersed with contemporary quotes from the artist highlighting his idiosyncratic attitude as a backdrop to the work, as well as photographs from his archives. The pristine illustrations in giant format fully prove the finesse as a colorist that makes this artist one of the most internationally recognized painters of his generation.
Specifications
Title: André Butzer
Publisher: TASCHEN
Size: 215 x 140 x 27 mm
Size: 432 pages
Weight: 3800 grams
Language: English
Material: Hardcover
ISBN: 9783836596664
