Events/
Thomas Bayrle: Repetition

Esteemed German artist Thomas Bayrle (German, born 1937) will give a lecture entitled Repetition on his diverse body of work of prints, films, and sculptures. Since 1964, Bayrle has produced works composed of hundreds of interlocking micro images that create a single portrait or consumer product. He relates the construction of these “super-forms” to the way single threads make up a woven fabric or individuals form mass culture. The images of his pictogram-like cells originate from serial elements present in Western advertising and Eastern mass demonstrations (such as Gillette razors, factory buildings, Stalin’s moustache, couples making love, Chinese farmers, and VW Beetles). According to Christine Mehring, “obsessive repetition functions here as a kind of visual equalizer, most interestingly across party lines, since the artist draws his iconography from the worlds of capitalism and Communism alike.” 

Links about the artist:
Thomas Bayrle: All-in-One at WIELS
Contemporary Art Daily
Artforum essay by Christine Mehring

This evening’s program is generously sponsored by Marc Jacobs.

Thomas Bayrle lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany. He taught at Städelschule, Frankfurt 1972 to 2002. He is considered a founding figure of the German Pop movement along with Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. His celebrated career includes solo shows at the Portikus, Frankfurt; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva. He currently has a retrospective exhibition on display at The WIELS Contemporary Art Center, Brussels and new work at The Artist’s Institute, New York. His last major survey was in 2009 at the Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona. He has participated in numerous important group exhibitions such as documenta, Kassel (1964, 1977, and 2012) and the Venice Biennale (2003, 2009)....