Werner Büttner: Undichte Schlüssellöcher

Has Werner Büttner's world of images become funnier, more colourful?

Or should we, following Kristian Vistrup Madsen's observations, consider them to be consistently gloomy and oppressive? The latter certainly applies to a work like "Brüder (Kain + Abel)" from 1983, but no longer exclusively to the more recent works. Here, the bitter no-future singing of the protagonists of the 1980s is mixed with a good dose of ironic melancholy and caustic mockery. The use of the colour palette has also changed, the earthy tone giving way to a certain signal-like quality, without the relationship to the earlier works being broken. But what led to such a melancholy softening of the world view? Is it a general consequence of getting older? Or is it based on the more specific awareness of now being too old for not wanting to be like the old people (in the 1980s)? Or does it all have the rather simple reason in the realisation: "Everything is soluble in alcohol!", as Rainald Goetz has his protagonist Raspe say in his 1983 novel "Irre"? Incidentally, he also added the Nietzschean reflection ("Become who you are") and an advertising slogan of the time ("You can stay who you are!"): "I don't want to become who I am!" A light comes on that Kristian Vistrup Madsen naturally also sees shining: Self-knowledge outshines everything, but can hardly prevent insanity and confusion from continuing to play their games with us.

Exhibition:
CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin, 30/7 - 29/8/2020