Lot 68 D

In his short creative life, Michel Majerus developed a unique, energetic oeuvre. Pop culture, techno, the metropolis, computer games and advertisements were his main source of inspiration. However, Majerus also found points of friction in art history and in the art scene of his time. With the help of the computer, he dissociated cuttings from advertising graphics or already existing works of art into compositions in which the set pieces stand next to each other in a non-hierarchical manner, enlarged into gigantic blow-ups. He was guided by his keen sense of the relationship between form and colour. (Nicolas Bourriaud, in: Michel Majerus, exhib.cat. Kunstmuseum Stuttgart/CAPC Bordeaux 2012, p.114). ‘Gebilde 2’ is the second painting in a five-part series in which the then 29-year-old Michel Majerus varied a theme within his early work in 1996. That same year, he achieved international breakthrough with his first retrospective in the Kunsthalle Basel, curated by Peter Pakesch. One of the most acclaimed pictures was the spectacular 15-part giant format ‘Zwei große Gebilde’, measuring a total of 480 x 700 cm (see illustration), with each individual panel corresponding to the work ‘Gebilde 2’ in its dimensions of 160 x 140 cm. He examined Andy Warhol and Frank Stella, among others, in the context of the series. Stella’s analytical Colour Field Painting as well as Andy Warhol’s Pop Art colouring and a certain playful seriality of forms and elements also characterise ‘Gebilde 2’.