The first volume of Werner Buttner's new titles, 'Coincidence in Splendour', presents an overview of his paintings and sculpture from the 1980s until the present. Together with Martin Kippenberger and Oehlen, Buttner has exerted a sustained and provocative impact on the European art scene since the late 1970s when, as the 'Junge Wilde', they sought to renounce the dominant modes of conceptual and minimal art through a return to painting. Buttner's work has continued to be marked by irony and critical distance, with its import often amplified by his combination of words and images. The artist is best known for drawing out deeper layers of meaning from daily scenes that, at first glance, may seem banal. He creates surreal assemblages that question our systems of value and contradict our understanding of what elements or images may be brought together. His work confronts social norms with both irony and satire; while retaining a firm understanding of the history of painting, Buttner is constantly testing convention. His large-scale neo-Expressionist and neo-Dadaist works address social issues with a biting and wry humour. In doing so, Buttner uses all genres of painting, including still life, self-portraiture and history painting. While the artist uses collages as the starting point for his paintings, the former are not only preparatory studies but a strategy that enables juxtaposing realities and unexpected associations, which are major characteristics of his extensive oeuvre. In this combination of the everyday and the commonplace, a sceptical perspective becomes manifest as a critical method. With cutting wit, Buttner breaks the spell of daily social events and renders their values relative and benign. The books will present newly commissioned texts as well as key essays relating to Buttner's practice that will appear in English for the first time.
