BAYRLE, THOMAS
1937 Berlin

Title: Kartoffelzähler.
Date: 1968/2000.
Technique: Colour silkscreen on two sheets of paper mounted side by side.
Mounting: Mounted on capaplate.
Depiction Size: 109 x 82cm.
Notation: Signed, dated and titled. Signed, dated and dedicated (verso). And numbered (in print verso on label).
Number: 2/10.


We thank the gallery neugerriemschneider, Berlin for their kind support.

Provenance:
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin (directly from artist)

Literature:
- cf. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Bärbel Vischer (eds.): Thomas Bayrle. Musterzeichner, Vienna 2017

Thomas Bayrle and the consumer world
Thomas Bayrle's art is dominated by themes of the modern industrial society of the 20th century, such as mass production and consumption. In his art, which is close to Pop Art, he playfully explores these themes. The son of an art historian with a doctorate and a painter and graphic artist, he trained as a pattern draughtsman and weaver from 1956. From 1958-1961, Bayrle studied commercial art at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach. These experiences shaped his two-dimensional works. A recurring motif in his oeuvre is the dualism of the masses and the individual. In his parents' home, these themes were already posed in terms of "Asian existential questions".

Potatoes for everyone or the " Kartoffelzähler" (potato counters)
Thomas Bayrle discovers the motif of men counting potatoes in this serigraph in the translated Chinese propaganda magazine "China heute". This publication deals with the ideas of the political current of Maoism and addresses, among other things, the question of the possibility of securing food for a constantly growing population. In this discourse, the potato plant is discussed as a possible proposal. The work shows three different potato counters in the background, which are repeated in an endless pattern across the entire sheet. While two of the men sit parallel to the edge of the picture along the side of the table covered by mountains of potatoes, the third man wearing glasses sits opposite them on the transverse side. Sketchily depicted with only their upper bodies, the three men hold red books, "Mao Bibles", in their hands and have their heads turned towards them. In the foreground, a potato plant with green leaves and brown tubers is placed on top of the repeating ornamentation.

Heaven and earth
Thomas Bayrle's work has an additional division through the coloring of the potatoes. While brown tones dominate in the lower half of the picture, the potatoes in the upper half are depicted in sky blue. The color change on the horizontal line also marks the point at which the leaves of the plant emerge from the soil. The mechanical principle of "creating art for everyone" in the reproducibility given by printmaking can also be equated here with "nutrition for everyone" as the central theme of the work. This edition object was also presented in the solo exhibitions "40 Jahre Chinese Rock'n Roll" at the MMK in Frankfurt a.M. (2002) and "Wenn es zu lang ist - mach es länger" at the MAK in Vienna (2017-2018).