Thomas Bayrle
b. 1937, Germany
Canon Meets Utamaro, 1988
Photography collage on wood
170.2 x 130.2 cm
Canon Meets Utamaro lies at a transitory point in Thomas Bayrle’s artistic career, as he began to use computer software in producing his art in 1988. This work represents a geisha in the style of Utamaro, a master of bijin-ga (“beautiful person pictures” in Japanese) prints within the ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking tradition, through the prism of new camera models being mass-produced in Japan at the time of making. Manually produced through a collage procedure that makes use of the deformation of a printed piece of rubber, Bayrle creates distorted prints of the same camera motif that portray Utamaro’s geisha in a deeply dimensional manner. However, this work does not only facilitate comparisons between traditional and modern means of image production. As it usually comes together with Canon Meets Sharaku (1989), the making of which was done on an Atari computer game, Canon Meets Utamaro lies midway between the past and future of image production, amidst the medium’s long history of over 300 years.
Photo: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images
Thomas Bayrle (b. 1937) is a German sculptor, painter, graphic artist and video artist. While commonly perceived as a pioneer of the German pop art movement, Bayrle’s critique of mass culture is more centred around the relationship between the individual and the socio-political, industrial, and technological regimes they are surrounded by. In his works, Bayrle pictures a world of goods through his signature styles that he calls a “superform”, where an image is composed of many repeated images. As Bayrle incorporates new technology into his practice as one of the first German artists to produce computer-generated and animated art, Baryle’s practice not only refers to social critique, but also refers to his own artistic means in a society increasingly dominated by automation. A recipient of the Hessian Cultural Prize (1998) and the Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt (2007), Bayrle has presented solo exhibitions in arts institutions globally, such as in WIELS, Brussels (2013), Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2009), and Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2009).
