Michel Würthle. Der Schwarze Leuchtturm von Oran

About

Often he was the first to collect their art. Less known is the fact that certain boozy conversations laid the foundation of some four-handed paintings, collages and texts (in collaboration with Martin Kippenberger of course, but also Damien Hirst, Daniel Richter, Walter Pichler, Cosima von Bonin, Haralampi Oroschakoff, Herbert Volkmann ...). His lust for life and nocturnal odysseys inspired him black ink drawings, that are humorous, sometimes pornographic and incredibly biting. Today a sort of sweet melancholy underlies the works presented in the exhibition "Der Schwarze Leuchtturm von Oran". Lightener drawings inviting to dreaminess, less dark, less sharp… as if the always flamboyant septuagenarian would low his guard for the first time to show the old wise.

After his interrupted studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Michel Würthle 1964 moved to Paris before he came 1971 to Berlin, and opened there the “Exile” with his longtime friends Oswald and Ingrid Wiener. A few years later he took over the “Paris Bar” on the Kantstrasse in the Charlottenburg district. The restaurant quickly became an institution for artists, actors and intellectuals. In 1991, he took up with his artistic practice. Since then, he is regularly invited to exhibit his work, or to curate group shows.