Michael Buthe

Michael Buthe creëerde textielwerken, tekeningen, schilderijen, assemblagesculpturen, foto’s, collages, dagboeken en films. Zijn twee enige bewaard gebleven installaties vormen ankerpunten in deze tentoonstelling: Taufkapelle mit Papa und Mama (1984) en Die heilige Nacht der Jungfräulichkeit (1992). Al in 1984 zette Buthe een uitgebreide presentatie op in het Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, de voorloper van S.M.A.K. De installatie Taufkapelle mit Papa und Mama werd voor deze gelegenheid gecreëerd en is tot op vandaag een belangrijk werk in de museumcollectie.

“For me my sun is, like all paintings, a functional object for seeing, for feeling, for dreaming, for understanding” are the words Michael Buthe (1944–1994) uses to describe his recurring, central motif. With bright colors or radiant gold, the artist assembles the entire world—indeed, the entire universe—within the circle of this heavenly body. Michael Buthe has no reservations: taking his lead from German Art Informel and American Minimal Art, he is fascinated by non-European cultures, counters the cool concept of Minimalism with pronounced sensuousness, and seduces viewers into raising spiritual as well as social questions. The retrospective brings together apparently archaic assemblages, brightly colored works on paper, and intensely worked canvases, collages, and paintings in gold. The documentation of installations, which in their opulence address all the senses, also allows gaining access to Michael Buthe’s spatial works.