Exhibition View of “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”
Organized by Yuz Museum in close collaboration with the artist and the curator Thomas Eller,“Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”, is a major survey exhibition to chronicle, in a few exemplary steps, the trajectory of one of Germany’s most influential artists, Werner Büttner, from March 22 to June 22, 2025 at Yuz Museum. It is the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Asia and it features a total of 46 major works, including 39 paintings and a group of 7 sculptures, comprising a comprehensive overview of the artist’s prolific career spanning from 1979 to 2024.
Born in Jena in 1954, Werner Büttner is a key figure in the German art scene of the late twentieth century. With his close friends, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen, he formed a strong presence, emerging in the late 1970s, projecting a sense of (sometimes dark) humor that was intended to shake up and invigorate an art scene steeped in rigid conceptualism. Their “joy of (bad) painting” became an inspiration for a new generation of artists and “electrified” a whole generation of younger painters, like Daniel Richter and Jonathan Meese, both his students. Büttner also left his mark on many of his Chinese students that chose to come to Hamburg and for him to be their teacher.
Exhibition View of “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”
“Neue Wilde (New Wilds)” was an artistic movement in West Germany that emerged in the late 1970s. The appearance of the trio (Büttner, Kippenberger and Oehlen) resonated throughout Germany with similar groups in other cities. Mülheimer Freiheit in Cologne, Moritzboys in Berlin and Gruppe Normal in Düsseldorf. Their “Hunger nach Bildern (Hunger for Pictures)” brushed aside an anemic and formulaic art practice and ushered in a new era of cultural invigoration.
This is exactly the same time when in China a whole new generation of artists emerged and founded what is today the very distinct and very strong Chinese artworld. Both developments share a kindred spirit and are both an emanation of “Zeitgeist” (as Hegel would have called it) and in fact the 1982 exhibition in Berlin by the same name, “Zeitgeist”, galvanized the whole Western art scene well beyond Germany. In Beijing, it was the artists who then became the Stars Group, that launched an exhibition in 1979, that jump-started the scene, while the 1993 exhibition “China Avantgarde” in Berlin brought international success to the blossoming artworld of China. Showing Werner Büttner’s work at the Yuz Museum nods to the kinship of “A New Spirit in Painting” that emerged simultaneously in different parts of the world.
Exhibition View of “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”
Werner Büttner emerged from this time as a singular and exceptional voice. If Germany had a Literati Culture, Büttner could be considered one of the most prominent proponents. There is hardly any other artist in Germany, who is more well-read than him. Harald Falckenberg, collector of contemporary art, once said: “If Büttner had not become an artist, he would also have become a famous writer.” The artist’s field of interest is extremely wide. From the myths of early nomadic cultures to the skepticism of Montaigne’s Essais, the artist has devoured Western philosophy and grand literature, not as an academic, but for personal use and as a means of developing his own personality. The human condition in all its glory and its misery is at the core of his interest and compassion. His intellectual curiosity and rigorous thinking are paired with a heightened sensibility for human strife. And all his paintings are witness to this uncompromising commitment to “La Condition Humaine”.
Exhibition View of “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”
Looking at Büttner’s paintings at first is a puzzling experience. He often uses metonymic strategies (exchanging one word/image for a similar one), or metaphors (exchanging one word/image for something else completely). In other words, images become shields of sorts, that protect and insulate the factual, or emotional core from the harshness of reality. This has become Büttner’s artistic methodology and visual language which he applies to all aspects of human life. There seem to be two reoccurring traits in his work, deep irony that cautions you to never believe in anything you see, and a deep desire to keep meaning alive, despite its obvious dangers. Werner Büttner is a believer, a believer in nothing. He sees the world and its references as a quarry of sorts, from where he receives the building blocks of his pictorial world, and he sees connections where no one else has looked.
Exhibition View of “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion”
The exhibition “Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion” is structured around eight important chapters from his imaginary book of life: The Beginnings and Other Self-Portraits; The Self; Women; Art History as Mirror; Man and Animal; Childhood; Literature as Saviour; La Condition Humaine. For the first time in China, this exhibition presents an exemplary cross section of the vast artistic oeuvre of Werner Büttner, demonstrating the unique power of art as a tool for critique and reflection on the contradictions and absurdities of human existence.
About the Artist
Portrait of Werner Büttner © Albrecht Fuchs Image courtesy of the artist
Werner Büttner was born in 1954, Jena, Germany. He studied Law at Berlin Free University in 1973. He moved to Hamburg in 1977, and worked with Georg Herold, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen from 1977 to 1985. From 1989 to 2021, he was a Professor of Painting at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. The artist currently lives and works in Geesthacht, Germany.
Werner Büttner’s recent solo exhibitions include: Malerei 1981-2022, Galerie Max Hetzler, Germany, 2023; Werner Büttner, Galerie Max Hetzler, Germany, 2022; Analogies, Allegories and Metaphors of the Human Condition, Triumph Gallery, China, 2022; Last Lecture Show, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, 2021 and The Ranch, New York, USA, 2022; No Scene from My Studio, Simon Lee Gallery, UK, 2021; Undichte Schlüssellöcher (Leaky Keyholes) and Bilder 1979-2019 (Images 1979-2019), Contemporary Fine Arts, Germany, 2020, and many more. Recent group exhibitions include: How’s my painting? Paintings from the Falckenberg Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany, 2025; Früher war schon immer jetzt. Malerei seit 1947 neu präsentiert (Back then has always been now. Painting since 1947 reconsidered), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, 2021; Büttner, Kippenberger & Oehlen: Trio Infernal, Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Zurich, 2020, and many more.
In addition, Büttner’s works are in many important collections, institutions and foundations, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, USA; FRAC Poitou-Charentes, France; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany; Mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria; Harvard Art Museum, USA; Pinakothek der Moderne, Germany, and many more.
About the Curator
Portrait of Thomas Eller Image courtesy of the curator.
Thomas Eller was born in 1964, Coburg, Germany. He studied Fine Art, Philosophy and Art History in Berlin. From 2004 to 2009, he was Editor-in-Chief and Executive Manager Germany for artnet.de, and Director of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin in 2008 and 2009. In 2017 he created the Gallery Weekend Beijing. In 2023 he was a Curator for the 7th Guangzhou Triennial, The Symphony of All Changes. He lives in Berlin and Mürsbach, Germany.
Thomas Eller has been collaborating with Werner Büttner since 2021. In 2022 they published an interview book: Zuweilen ist Ehrlichkeit die eleganteste Maske (At Times Honesty is the Most Elegant Disguise) at Starfruit publishing, Nuremberg, Germany. In 2022 he curated Büttner’s solo exhibition Analogies, Allegories and Metaphors of the Human Condition at Triumph Gallery, Beijing.
About the Exhibition
Curated by Thomas Eller
Dates: March 22 – June 22, 2025
Venue: Yuz Museum, Panlong Tiandi, Shanghai
Courtesy of Yuz Museum.
