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MICHEL Würthle
 


1943 Hallstatt, Austria / Lives and works in Berlin and Syros, Greece
 

Artist, Dandy and collector. Michel Würthle was member of the Vienna Group (Wiener Gruppe), an avant-garde constellation of Austrian poets and writers. 1972 he moved to Berlin and founded with Ingrid and Oswald Wiener his first restaurant, the legendary Exil. 1979 he opened the famous Paris Bar.
 

Michel Würthle is a prominent Austrian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1943. Their work was featured in numerous exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the BORCH Gallery and the Gabriele Senn Galerie. ''Michel Würthle was born in 1943 and was largely inspired by the 1960s growing up. In the art world, a multitude of powerful changes were also taking place. Pop Art, embodying the culture of mass media through the artworks of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann, was slowly breaking down the foundations on which the creation and reception of art were built. Drawing from the imagery of popular culture and mass consumerism, the Pop Artists refuted the authority of highbrow art and created a ground-breaking movement, while Minimalism, simultaneously appearing, was rejecting any form of emotional expression and focused on art’s theoretical aspect – aspiring to pure visual responses. Simplicity and an void of emotions were key concepts in the highly influential movement of Minimalism, embodied by artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Agnes Martin. Bored of the gestural elements of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist artists focused on producing artworks mainly gathering polished, clean lines and geometrical elements. Digging further into some of the concepts inherent to Abstract Expressionism, artists such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler practiced Colour Field Painting – strongly relating to Minimalism, with an essentially ruled-based approach, devoid of any emotional aspect. Several schools of philosophy profoundly influenced creatives, Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were artists fundamentally persuaded by the ideas of Existentialism, who achieved worldwide fame through their depiction of the human form and the lament often associated with the human condition. Internationally, an important number of art movements resounded with the radical changes of the 1960s, often prone to their own regional distinctions. In Italy, Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni created Spatialism, while in Germany, the Zero group embraced similar ideas under the leadership of Günther Uecker.


 

EXHIBITIONS (selection)
 

2020 Berlin, Haubrok Fahrbereitschaft
2018 Berlin, CFA: Le Cinéma de la vie

2017 Wien, Galerie Crone: Ein verlorener Haufen kehrt zurück

2012 Berlin, Haubrok Shows: Charade/Rochade

2011 Paris, Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve: Le Paris Bar à Paris

2010 Berlin, Bourouina Gallery: Les Deux Magots ( with Benjamin Katz) (cat)

2007 Piraeus, Greece, Art Cargo: Zeichnungen,

New York, Nyehaus: Too Far For Binoculars – Michel Würthle and his companions (cat)

2001 Ibiza, Spain, Gallery Jan Pieper: Collagen und Zeichnungen,

1999 Berlin, Hohenthal und Bergen: Gute Figur machen (cat)

Cologne, Gallery Heinz Holtmann: Hommage à Dieter Roth

1997 Sevilla, Spain, Gallery Juana de Aizpuru: Zeichnungen

Athens, Gallery Unlimited:  Zeichnungen,

Thessaloniki, Greece, Floka Gallery,

1996 Geneva, Switzerland, Mamco Musée d'art moderne et contemporain

Innsbruck, Herbert Fuchs: Pralinen

Graz, Gallery Bleich-Rossi: Appetiti (cat)

Paris, Jean-Marc Patras; My husband and I, with Katharina Würthle

Nice, Gallery Art: Concept:  Zeichnungen

Lund, Sweden, Anders Tornberg Gallery

1995 Windisch, Minihof, Austria, Club an der Grenze: Bonjour Monsieur Teste

Berlin, Contemporary Fine Arts: A Bonnie Situation – Truth and Fiction (group show)

Duala, Kamerun: Around & Around, curated by Achim Kubinsky,

1994 Berlin, Bruno Brunnet Fine Arts: Aufzeichnungen eines bewaffneten Schankprinzen (cat)

Zurich, Gallery Fettstr.7 Birgit Küng: Homage to my taylor

1993 Cologne: Warme Mahlzeit, with Ingrid Wiener

Michel_Würthle_Portrait_neu.jpg

Photo credit: Diana Hohenthal

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