Rotwand :: Exhibitions :: Thomas Müllenbach

Exhibitions :: Thomas Müllenbach

Thomas Müllenbach, 14 January 2011 – 29 January 2011

Thomas Müllenbach
Nach Pablo Picasso, 2010
Watercolor on paper
21 x 14.8 cm

THOMAS MÜLLENBACH
Halboriginal
TWO WEEKS SPECIAL PROJECT

January 14 - 29, 2011
Opening: Friday, January 14, 2011, from 5 pm

Since 2005 Thomas Muellenbach has collected every flyer and exhibition invitation sent to him. He has reinterpreted these invitations in watercolors, leaving off the text whenever it was not part of the work. Muellenbach does not see himself as a servile copyist but rather follows the freedom of his own thinking. Over 600 watercolors have been produced so far, from “foreign” subjects but in Muellenbach’s painting style — a kind of “handmade appropriation.“
For the first time, Rotwand is showing publically a group of over 500 of these works, based on artists from Duerer to Polke to Dawn Mellor, in a two-week-long project exhibition. The title “Halboriginal” (Half Original) refers to the sly term used in the
Balkans for commercial counterfeit watches and fashion articles. In fact, the subjects were not invented by Muellenbach, but their watercolor counterparts are his creation.