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Lot 216
Thomas Bayrle (b. 1937)
Römische Treppe (Roman Steps)
Closed7 October 2017
Price Realised
GBP 50,000
More Information
Specialist note
‘The present’ masses together. Attracts everything to it. Hurls the past, tears the future – back to the moment. 50 years after the communist version of ‘collective culture’ things are dense enough for that, the world has condensed – in the thicket of machines.’ THOMAS BAYRLE
Thomas Bayrle’s Römische Treppe (Roman Steps) exemplifies the Frankfurt artist’s unique approach to mind-melting visual modification, employed as a scintillating device with which to critique popular culture. The Platonic form of a Roman stylobate, light in tone and exact in execution, is interrupted by an anamorphic projection of a head, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s David. The pattern of this form is manifested by the rippling lines of the stairs, creating a humorous conceit that thematically concords with the antique design of the stylobate.
Inspired by the capitalist realism of German pop and the Frankfurt School, Bayrle’s work responds to a saturation of mass-media in post-war Europe. In Römische Treppe, the uncanny fusion of archetypal staircase and sculptural head resonates with Bayrle’s affection for kitsch imagery, which is stylistically supported by a flat, commercial approach to the handling of acrylic paint. Whilst this painstakingly considered and precise technique prefigures the three-dimensional computer graphics and digital media of succeeding decades, it also cunningly alludes to the mechanical means of mass-reproduced imagery prominent in a post-war consumerist culture. The fluidity with which Bayrle plunges manipulated representations of the past into his innovative compositions, whilst re-appropriating art-historical icons, reflects his proclamation that ‘‘the present’ masses together. Attracts everything to it. Hurls the past, tears the future – back to the moment’ (T. Bayrle, letter to the Frankfurter Rundschau 1980/81, quoted in Thomas Bayrle: All in One, exh. cat., Wiels, Brussels, 2013, p. 150).
Bayrle’s stylistic practice was born out of his apprenticeship at a weaver’s workshop. Fascinated and engrossed by the intricate patterns of the textiles, Bayrle encountered a series of hallucinations that inspired him to create biomorphic ‘superforms’, mimetically conjuring a total pictogram out of a complex system of homogenous fragments. At the start of the 1970s, Bayrle developed this approach by fracturing the structures of graphs, sheet music, repetitious designs (such as a grid of cheques) or, in the case of Römische Treppe, a Platonic form, in order to project faces. With this pictorial disturbance, Bayrle subverts the capitalist compulsion towards mass consumerism, whilst exhibiting a wondrous style that consistently delights in its compositional invention.
Thomas Bayrle’s Römische Treppe (Roman Steps) exemplifies the Frankfurt artist’s unique approach to mind-melting visual modification, employed as a scintillating device with which to critique popular culture. The Platonic form of a Roman stylobate, light in tone and exact in execution, is interrupted by an anamorphic projection of a head, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s David. The pattern of this form is manifested by the rippling lines of the stairs, creating a humorous conceit that thematically concords with the antique design of the stylobate.
Inspired by the capitalist realism of German pop and the Frankfurt School, Bayrle’s work responds to a saturation of mass-media in post-war Europe. In Römische Treppe, the uncanny fusion of archetypal staircase and sculptural head resonates with Bayrle’s affection for kitsch imagery, which is stylistically supported by a flat, commercial approach to the handling of acrylic paint. Whilst this painstakingly considered and precise technique prefigures the three-dimensional computer graphics and digital media of succeeding decades, it also cunningly alludes to the mechanical means of mass-reproduced imagery prominent in a post-war consumerist culture. The fluidity with which Bayrle plunges manipulated representations of the past into his innovative compositions, whilst re-appropriating art-historical icons, reflects his proclamation that ‘‘the present’ masses together. Attracts everything to it. Hurls the past, tears the future – back to the moment’ (T. Bayrle, letter to the Frankfurter Rundschau 1980/81, quoted in Thomas Bayrle: All in One, exh. cat., Wiels, Brussels, 2013, p. 150).
Bayrle’s stylistic practice was born out of his apprenticeship at a weaver’s workshop. Fascinated and engrossed by the intricate patterns of the textiles, Bayrle encountered a series of hallucinations that inspired him to create biomorphic ‘superforms’, mimetically conjuring a total pictogram out of a complex system of homogenous fragments. At the start of the 1970s, Bayrle developed this approach by fracturing the structures of graphs, sheet music, repetitious designs (such as a grid of cheques) or, in the case of Römische Treppe, a Platonic form, in order to project faces. With this pictorial disturbance, Bayrle subverts the capitalist compulsion towards mass consumerism, whilst exhibiting a wondrous style that consistently delights in its compositional invention.