Werner Büttner, born in Jena in 1954, is being awarded the fourth Hans Platschek Prize for Art and Writing at the eighth art KARLSRUHE (10 to 13 March). This painter is one of the most prominent representatives of the “Neue Wilde”, an art movement that became popular with luscious painting in the 80s. His creativity goes well beyond brush and canvas work, however. Alongside Albert and Markus Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger he created a sensation in the art business with sarcasm and deadly irony in words and pictures. He used to be a publisher and anthologist as well.
The artist was nominated by the notable Hamburg art collector Harald Falckenberg, this year–s solo juror. He justified his decision with the words: “Büttner prefers the fragmentary, the aphoristic, the metaphor, the small, poetic thicket.”
Shortly before the Berlin Wall was built, Büttner–s family fled from the DDR to Munich in 1961. He broke off his law studies in favour of fine art. This self-taught artist has been working as a painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and writer since the 70s. The consumption craze, alleged liberality, conservative values – Büttner satirised all these social circumstances “with the aim of putting his oar in every undesirable cultural development by way of comment”, as Harald Falckenberg puts it. In the coming documenta year 2012, the Karlsruhe Centre for Art and Media, ZKM, is honouring him with a major exhibition. The juror says the artist and Hans Platschek, who often met, had in common “a sarcastic sense of humour and harsh judgement”.
He has been teaching drawing and painting at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg since 1989. Werner Büttner is presenting a selection of his works at art Karlsruhe 2011 and setting them in contrast to works by Hans Platschek.
The Hans Platschek Prize, which is awarded by the Hamburg Hans Platschek Foundation and includes prize money of 5000 euros, distinguishes an artist who not only has a record of outstanding artistic achievement but who also has excellent power of expression in speech and writing. The award ceremony takes place at 5 p.m. on 10 March in Foyer Ost. Previous winners are F. W. Bernstein (2008), Friedrich Einhoff (2009), and Monika Grzymala (2010). The art fair–s second distinction is the Baden-Württemberg and City of Karlsruhe art KARLSRUHE Prize, which is being awarded for the fourth time to the best one-artist show at 5 p.m. on 11 March in Foyer Ost.
By the way: an art Karlsruhe app for iPhone and iPad is available free-of-charge from Apple–s Appstore from the beginning of February onwards. It gives you a simple and convenient means for exploring sculpture zones, one-artist shows, hall layouts, contacts, and gallery-owner profiles with sample pictures and for compiling wish lists.
The programme also provides interfaces for Facebook and Twitter and enables contents to be sent by email.