What would Michel Majerus have to say about the present? About Russia’s war of aggression, climate change, the Twitter takeover, the Metaverse, Balenciaga and Netflix? The Luxembourgish artist, who is most known for the mark he made on 1990s Berlin, was a sponge for everything. He was as interested in 20th century painting as he was in MTV, techno, the internet and advertising, making no distinction between high and pop culture. In his paintings, references to art pop pioneers such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat stand on an equal footing with the Mainzelmännchen and characters from Sesame Street. Early on, Majerus was a master of bricolage, a king of remix, composing his visual worlds from fragments of everyday life and subtle social criticism. It’s interesting that he chose traditional painting, thus freeing the canvas a little from the dust of his predecessors. For what he painted was contemporary and yet always clearly recognizable as his own distinctive style. In a way, Majerus’s practice reflects the new world – reunified Germany – he lived in. KW Institute for Contemporary Art is now dedicating a comprehensive solo exhibition to him, 20 years after his accidental death at the age of 35.

The focus is on the beginnings of Majerus’s career, with works from between 1990 and 1996. You encounter Majerus as an art student at the Academy in Stuttgart and follow him to Berlin, where he quickly becomes a scene favorite after the fall of the Wall. A feeling of breaking out and unfinishedness gripped not only Majerus’s work but Berlin as a whole. This feeds into the exhibition architecture, with scaffolding that recalls a capital under construction and Majerus’s museum debut in 1996 at the Kunsthalle Basel. The design emphasizes how Majerus was never interested in painting as a medium per se, but always pushed its boundaries, be it practically, through the use of large, gallery-filling formats, or theoretically, in how he constantly analyzed contemporary image production. It’s not just KW exploring Majerus’s contribution to art: the Michel Majerus 2022 exhibition series sees other German art institutions showing his work too. In Berlin, Majerus is on show at the Michel Majerus Estate, Galerie Neugerriemschneider and, from 17.12.2022, at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Three places in which to ponder why Majerus paintings still capture the zeitgeist.

Text: Laura Storfner / Credit: Michel Majerus, Ohne Titel, 1991, Michel Majerus Estate, 2022. neugerriemschneider, Berlin und Matthew Marks Gallery; Installationsansicht der Ausstellung Michel Majerus KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2022; Michel Majerus, Robot, 1990, Michel Majerus Estate, 2022. Privatsammlung / Fotos: Wolfgang Pulfer, Jens Ziehe & Frank Sperling

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststr.69, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Michel Majerus: Early Works, until 15.01.2023
Wed & Fri–Mon 11–19h, Thu 11–14h

Michel Majerus Estate, Knaackstr.12, 10405 Berlin–Prenzlauer Berg; map
“kosuth majerus sonderborg – an installation by Joseph Kosuth”, until 18.03.2023
Sat 11–18h and by appointment

Neugerriemschneider, Linienstr.155, 10115 Berlin–Mitte; map
Michel Majerus – paintings, 1994, until 14.01.2023
Tue–Sat 11–18h

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Chausseestr.128/129, 10115 Berlin–Mitte; map
Michel Majerus, 17.12.2022–05.02.2023
Tue–Wed, Fri–Sun, 12–18h, Thu 12–20h

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