Thomas Bayrle
(German, (b. 1937))
Feierabend, (Chairs) 1970
silk screen in colors on wove paper
numbered, titled, signed, and dated 9/100 Feierabend Bayle 70 in pencil on lower plate, printed and published by the artist.
23 x 16in (58 x 41cm)
FootnoteIn the 1960s, Bayrle developed a signature visual language of intricately patterned images. Drawing on his experience working in a textile factory, he constructed tightly bound compositions, using images drawn from mass-media sources to create repeating rhythms. Bayrle rendered his chosen icons by tiling tiny pictures to generate both an overall pattern and a single image standing out against the background. This visual overload was a response to Germany’s exploding consumer culture in the 1960s In parallel with the work of his German contemporary Sigmar Polke and the American Pop artist Andy Warhol, the serigraph medium allowed Bayrle to replicate a factory-like mode of creation, reflecting his fascination with the structures of mass culture. The central notion of Bayrle’s practice, which now stretches over half a century, is one of individual parts weaving into a larger whole – in capitalist, communist, or fascist society, in religion, in industry, and in our very bodies. Bayrle sees all constructions of human life and power as interlinked. Blending aspects of Pop, Op and conceptual art, his early works were vastly ahead of their time.

Matted and framed. 29 1/2 x 23in (75 x 58cm) Very good overall.