“I believe in painting as one of the sources of life. It's not that life is represented in painting, it's that painting has been bringing up life, always like light. We know that human life is non-existing without light, the light of the sun. It is a source of light and has been shining on us before we were here. It is the same as painting as a source of light.”
—André ButzerAndré Butzer’s practice centres around fantastical, playful and otherworldly scenes rendered in bright colours. Executed in 2019, after a period of creating monochromatic abstract works, English Muffins is a supreme example of the artist’s idiosyncratic “Science-Fiction Expressionism”. In its visual and material abundance, the present work is both overwhelming and enticing. Amidst the vivid chromatic interactions, the centre of the canvas is dominated by a homogenous fleshy form, a physical presence akin to a bather or reclining figure. Through a careful balance of planar colour and texture, the artist defines the temperament and weight of the painting. Butzer keeps what is abstract and what is corporeal, what disintegrates and what coagulates in a precarious equilibrium. The monumental scale of the present work encourages a slower and closer viewing of the abrupt textural shifts between layers of paint; vibrant and dynamic brushstrokes sweep the viewer across the picture plane with arresting energy.
“All is light and I, in a sunhat, measure its beams. The genetics being blue, red, yellow, and the colour of flesh.”
—André ButzerEnglish Muffins is a whimsical ode to the sentimentality of the artist. Drawing upon the history of German Expressionism, Butzer conceived his own artistic genre, one that brings the history of abstraction into his own present. For Butzer, each painting has a volatile mind of its own: colour and form burst across the picture plane in an abstract frenzy. He handles paint with a remarkable colourist’s eye that has won him widespread acclaim over the past three decades. Having once assisted in the studio of Albert Oehlen—who was also an early collector of his work—he can be seen in the riotous lineage of “bad painting” championed by Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger and Werner Büttner in the 1980s and 1990s. While less politically driven than some of his predecessors, Butzer conceived his artistic practice partly in opposition to the industry and order that defined his childhood in Stuttgart, Germany’s automotive capital. As in the present work, the titles of his works are often dedicated to the customs, things, places, landscapes and friendships which Butzer holds dear. A monumental and arresting painting, English Muffins bursts with a youthfully radiant joy which defines his oeuvre.
