André Butzer

Fusing European Expressionism with American popular culture, André Butzer (b. 1973, Stuttgart) has painted his way through the artistic and political extremes of the 20th century – life, death, consumption and mass entertainment – into the 21st century. With wide ranging influences including Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, as well as Walt Disney and Henry Ford, Butzer has developed a unique and elaborate fictitious universe.

Many iconic characters have come to populate Butzer’s ‘Science Fiction-Expressionism’ with their recognisable large comic-book eyes, inflated heads or oversized hands. First appearing in 1999, these bright figures and shapes continue to lure the viewer in subsequent bodies of work. Engaging with the fundamental dimensions of colour, light and painterly expression, Butzer’s practice has shifted through the seemingly utter blackness of his N-Paintings, to a return to vibrancy, following his move to California between 2018 to 2021. Painting en plein air year-round, these recent works vibrate with a bold, energetic force.

(Text by Galery Max Hetzler https://www.maxhetzler.com/artists/andre-butzer#biography)

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Aïshti Foundation, Beirut

Art Institute of Chicago

Aurora Museum, Shanghai

Carré d’Art, Nîmes

Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York

CICA Center of International Contemporary Art, Vancouver

Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn

Deichtorhallen, Hamburg

Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen / Bonn

Hall Art Foundation, Reading / VT | Derneburg

Hölderlinturm, Tübingen

IKOB Musée d’Art Contemporain, Eupen

Kupferstichkabinett / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Marciano Art Collection, Los Angeles

MARe Museum, Bucharest

MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Museo Novecento, Florence

Museum Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden

Nationalgalerie / Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Rubell Museum, Miami

Sammlung Goetz, Munich

Space K, Seoul

Ståhl Collection, Norrköping

Tyrol State Collection, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck

University of Washington, Seattle

YUZ Museum, Shanghai