Lot 649 D

“With the sharpness of his intellect and with the consciously chosen visual appearance of a quack doctor, Werner Büttner dissects the emanations of (medial) reality and places his entire scepticism of the world in his pictures and their motifs. What used to be superstition and irrationality is today a lack of reflection on reality and ignorance or even worse: indifference to the charlatans, known from film, radio, television and police call boxes (to sound a visual quote from Martin Kippenberger) and what they promise. In this respect, Werner Büttner can be understood when he confesses desperately with a picture: modern art can be understood, the modern world not.” (Andreas Beitin, Desaster trotz Demokratie, Lustvolle Vivisektionen am aufgeblähten Leib der Wirklichkeit, in: Peter Weibel, Andreas Beitin (ed.), Gemeine Wahrheiten, Werner Büttner, exhib.cat. Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe et.al., Ostfildern 2013, p.262).