Exhibition visit to the studio of Clemens Büntig

In mid-June, it was time again for interested members of the Freundeskreis to meet at Clemens Büntig's studio in Traunstein. All studio visits try to establish a connection to an important aspect of the museum collection, this time printmaking. It was precisely in the 1960s and 1970s that this well-known medium, which had previously received little attention in contemporary art, conquered the art market.

Printmaking corresponded to the desire at the time for the democratization of art. Produced in large editions and no longer unique, art should be affordable for everyone. From 1974 onwards Edition of the Heiner Friedrich Gallery published numerous print portfolios with artists from the gallery, such as Imi Knoebel and Blinky Palermo. Pop Art in particular looked for influences outside the art world and found them, for example, in the technique of screen printing with its two-dimensional effects and brilliant colors, which originated in advertising. In the 1960s and 1970s, Andy Warhol worked almost exclusively with this technique. With screen printing, he had also adopted the visual world of advertising and played with seriality and variation in motif and color. He took the technical, non-artistic production process as his model and produced images seemingly as mass-produced goods in his studio called Factory.

Our studio visit focused on the work of a contemporary artist from the region. Clemens Büntig moved to New York in the mid-1990s after completing his diploma in original printmaking at the Basel Academy of Art and Design. There he worked as an artist and printmaker with well-known artists such as Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra and Sean Scully. The content of his own work revolves around motifs from nature and natural processes, which he translates into an image in an experimental interplay with various printmaking techniques. Using his own works, Clemens Büntig vividly demonstrated different printmaking processes and explained how he combines technique and content in his work. One of the highlights was certainly the demonstration on his own printing press. After a thunderstorm with heavy rain had passed, part of the group met for a drink in the Wochinger brewery.

 

Andy Warhol and his artist friends also provide the impetus for the next excursion in the fall. The circle of friends visits the exhibition Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Party of Life at the Museum Brandhorst in Munich.

Anyone interested in the activities of the circle of friends is welcome to contact us. here about membership.