Martin Disler Malerei

The Buchmann Galerie Berlin is delighted to announce an exhibition with works by Martin Disler (*1949 – 1996). 

In cooperation with The Estate of Martin Disler we are presenting large-format paintings which arose in the artist’s final creative years in the 1990’s and additionally large-format works on paper from the same period. 

Driven by an incessant creativity, the self-taught artist worked on his drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures. Time and time again in his work he approached the limits of his own physical endurance. Not only in his 4.5 x 140 meter monumental painting Die Umgebung der Liebe (The Surroundings of Love), or in the Stream of Eros (1985), a mural for the Serpentine Gallery in London, did he put his limits to the test driving himself to the point of exhaustion, but also with the group of 66 life-size bronze sculptures Häutung und Tanz (Shedding of Skin and Dance) or the sequence Arbeiten für den langen nassen Weg (Works for the long wet road) with 999 watercolours. The latter was never completed due to the artist’s tragic death but can be seen in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel and comprises 300 works. 

In his pictorial work Martin Disler repeatedly made reference to literary works. He himself, alongside his visual work, created deeply evocative literary texts and more than a dozen art books contain his writings. In 1980, his novel, Bilder vom Maler (Pictures of the painter) was published. In September 2014, the book Die Versuchung des Malers (The temptation of the painter) appeared posthumously. His 300 water colours for Arbeiten für den langen nassen Weg (Works for the long wet road) dealt with the poems of Fernando Pessoas. 

The large-format painting Der Angespülte wird gefunden (Finding somebody washed up on the shore) exhibited in the gallery belongs to a group of works consisting of 15 acrylic paintings called Trios und Quartette (Trios and Quartets) dating back to 1994/1995, which all share roughly the same format 190 x 210 cm. The title Trios und Quartette refers to the compositional form each consisting of three or four figures in a scenic representation. In the case of the painting in the exhibition Disler makes special reference to a very real incident which occurred in 1995 in the provinces of Limburg and Gelderland in the Netherlands where 250,000 people had to be evacuated due to flooding when the Maas and the Waal broke their banks. 

The anticipation of death and to the same degree his great hunger for life permeate Disler’s entire oeuvre. Both serve as an expression of Martin Disler’s efforts to create works of universal validity representing the human condition. 

Martin Disler was a restless wanderer; he lived in New York, in Zurich, Amsterdam, Les Planchettes and in Lugano. He died aged only 47 on 27 August 1996 after suffering a stroke. He achieved international recognition through his legendary exhibition Invasion durch eine falsche Sprache (Invasion by a wrong language) in the Kunsthalle Basel in 1980. The following years led to his rapidly growing fame. 

Recently this year, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva exhibited Martin Disler’s graphic prints, drawings and printing blocks. In 2016 the Kunsthalle Bielefeld showed an impressive exhibition of works with sculptures, paintings and graphical works and in addition published a catalogue. The Buchmann Galerie has been representing Martin Disler’s estate since 2013. 

For more information about the artist and for images you are welcome to contact the gallery at any time.