Nothing But Good: Michael Weißköppel / Michel Majerus

Saturday 2 December 2023

Michael Weißköppel / Michel Majerus

Michel Majerus

10 bears masturbating in 10 boxes

1992

295,3 x 560,6 cm

acrylic on canvas

Michel Majerus

lost forever

1992

280 x 400 cm

acrylic on canvas

Majerus like

Not the worst comparison I thought when I read the comment under one of my Instagram posts. Majerus has a lot that drives me to make paintings. His curiosity towards the environments and his enthusiasm to be aware of changes in the world that directly flooded into his art. By applying various techniques and mixing different influences he developed a signature style with different characteristics where none is taking precedence over the other. In his paintings, an expressive brushwork has the same value as a comic character, there is no high and low.

He didn‘t accept boundaries, his work is catchy and he was in the here and now... but even as I write this, I‘m wondering whether exactly the opposite might be desirable sometimes. Majerus works appear as if they are entirely dedicated to postpop, the aesthetics of advertising, video games and consumerism. And it can be seen as if he just celebrated this flat aesthetics and built them a memorial. Or not? “What looks good today may not look good tomorrow,” one of his paintings shows him as a doubter. His works, which appear so self-confident, are perhaps a criticism of consumption and our enthusiasm for media.

Often the work seems to be unfinished, parts are overpainted and the surface is kind of damaged. Scratches on the glossy world of the computer screen. Doubt and Enthusiasm? Is there only black and white? Or is there a wide variety of shades of grey? Maybe he simply quoted and painted things that excited him without evaluating them in advance.

I feel very close to him, painting what interests me, what excites me and what I simply want to paint. And it shouldn‘t matter whether this already exists, whether someone else has already done it or whether someone says that you shouldn‘t paint it.

Michael Weißköppel, 2023