Dark, faceless figures, a bawling infant in a stroller, the companylogos of cheap discount stores, banker types, angrypeople with tattoos, zombies with wrinkled faces and emptyeye sockets, stumbling people, falling people, people sweptaway, crumbling houses, shreds of words, fragments ofpeople, lots of black and little colour - Theo Boettger createsa pandemonium of modern life on the brink of the abyssin his large-format watercolours. As an artist, he deals withtopics in everyday life by pitting himself against the demoralisingdetails of social inequities, the impertinence of themedia, and hopeless human fates.In his pictures, he addresses exclusion, life balanced in themargins and condemned there to desperation, explosion,and failure. Black holes and spiral forms that have been incorporatedinto the collage, bursts of black colour emanatingfrom fierce brush strokes, chaotic compositions of simultaneousactions - all of these endow the realistic elements inthe images with even greater intensity.The artist eschews banal descriptions in his images, interruptinghis narratives with symbols and commentariescomprised of word fragments, as if to slow down the viewer'sobservations by requiring a large amount of time for decoding.For there is, in principle, nothing written in thesepaintings that could not also be seen. Where people act like the black-and-white characters in a comic strip, one personcan be exchanged for the other; the stories in the speechbubbles become a parallel reality that functions as a spark forthe painterly discovery of form.For Theo Boettger, codification does not mean disguisingfacts. Even though many story sequences are given only infragments, a mood of grim critique always pierces through allfilters of artistic alienation. Distance and identification seemto have congealed into a constant state of fierce struggle withone another. The artist does not allow himself the cool distanceof an analyst, nor does he deliver a plain and simple sociocriticalevaluation of the situation. His images derive theirclarity from the topicality of their subjects and their deepseriousness, even though this seriousness also overfiows,now and then, into hopeless gloom. Theo Boettger takesadvantage of only a fraction of the potential of the mediumin his watercolours, but he does so intentionally, reducing hisworks to a few primary tones without any decorative smearsor fiowing colour gradients.Simplicity of form is the goal; formal disquietude correspondsto an authentic sense of agitation. The remnants ofthe artist's presence in the paintings - moist waves and blemishes,drips of paint, black blots - attest to the intensity ofthe process of creation and appear as marks of desecrationon the once - white paper. There is more than formal coquetrywith brutishness, fury, and rebelliousness resonatingin these paintings. Indeed, the interspersed words outline the path of a diffuse, cognitive march; yet they remain mereintimations that never run the risk of congealing into slogans.Like echoes, these words refer back to the fragmentary natureof modern worlds of signs.Artistic examinations of acute situations in society by meansof street observations have a rich historical tradition.The high point of this tradition was, arguably, the urbanpainting of Expressionism and Critical Realism in the 1920's,which often derived the arc of tension in their narratives byjuxtaposing the rich and the poor, the seemingly limitlesspossibilities for amusement in the city and the melancholyof the individual in the crowd. It is possible to draw a directcomparison between Theo Boettger's paintings and thesetraditions. Nevertheless, these works are missing the "lighterside" almost completely, as if one had taken down all of theradiant facades of the city, leaving behind only the featurelessquagmire of humanity in its bowels. The artist turns hisattention to the darkened realms, the splatter scene that iseveryday existence. Yet he does not do so with meticulousdescriptions and objective statistics. Rather, he uses imagesto speak the language of what he represents. Boettger is gruffand sarcastic, but never distant.

(Text by Johannes Schmidt)

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2013

»RISE«, galerie baer, Dresden

2011

»Das Orakel«, Kunstverein Wolfsburg

2010

»Point of no return«, galerie baer, Dresden

Participations (selection)

2013

»jetzt hier«, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden

2012

»Apokalypse Utopie«, Galerie Pankow, Berlin (C)

»Kontrollverlust«, Kunsthaus Erfurt

»Kunst-Kunst. Von hier aus betrachtet«, GfZK Leipzig

»l´oiseau présente... «, Ballhaus Ost, Berlin 

2011

»galerie modul 3«, Keller Hauptstraße 1, Colorado, Dresden 

»Theo Boettger, Hannes Broecker, Eckehard Fuchs, Andreas Hildebrandt«, galerie baer, Dresden

»Positionen Sächsischer Gegenwartskunst«, Villa Eschebach, Dresden

»Dialoge – X. Biennale der Gegenwartskunst«, St. Petersburg, Russland

Vita

1975

born in Meißen, Germany

1996-2001

studied fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden, Germany 

2001-2003

master studies with Prof. Hans Peter Adamski at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden, Germany 

lives and works in Berlin, Germany 

Prizes

2006

New Talents at the Art Cologne, Köln, Germany 

2005

Grant by Käthe Dorsch Foundation, Berlin, Germany 

2004

Residency scholarship by Kulturstiftung of Saxony (Schloss Wiepersdorf), Germany 

2003

travel scholarship, Moskow, Russia 

2002

New York scholarship by the German National Acadamic Foundation

Hegenbarth Fellowship for the project »No more heroes« 

2000

Scholarship Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes 

 

Downloads

CV english

Text

»Subversive Reality« · Holger Peter Saupe · 2010

»THE SNEAK« · Carla Orthen · 2008

»In all Seriousness« · Johannes Schmidt · 2006


Theo Boettger · »Weirdo« · 70 3/4 x 55 1/4 in (180 x 140 cm) · oil and varnish on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »TV« · 82 3/4 x 114 1/4 in (210 x 290 cm) · oil, varnish on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »spanische Ferien« · 39 1/3 x 27 1/2 in (100 x 70 cm) · oil, varnish on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Map« · 75 x 200 cm (29 1/2 x 78 3/4 in) · coloured pencil, ink on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »out of the dark« · 29 1/2 x 78 3/4 in (75 x 200 cm) · coloured pencil and ink on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »FB« · 29 1/2 x 76 1/3 in (75 x 194 cm) · coloured pencil, ink on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Berliner Wohnzimmer« · 47 1/2 x 70 3/4 in (120 x 180 cm) · acrylic and varnish on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Geister« · 59 x 78 3/4 in (150 x 200 cm) · acrylic, varnish on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Heartbeat« · 39 1/3 x 27 1/2 in (100 x 70 cm) · acrylic, varnish, oil on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Kopf« · 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in (50 x 40 cm) · oil, varnish on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »powered by emotions« · 86 2/3 x 63 in (220 x 160 cm) · oil on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »worldwidewest« · 78 3/4 x 114 1/4 in (200 x 290 cm) · acrylic, oil and varnish on canvas · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Bad Resistance« · 78 3/4 x 63 in (200 x 160 cm) · acrylic and varnish on canvas · 2011

Theo Boettger · »o.t. (goo luck)« · 74 3/4 x 55 in (190 x 140 cm) · acrylic and varnish on canvas · 2011

Theo Boettger · »99 Prozent« · 29 1/2 x 76 3/4 in (75 x 195 cm) · ink on paper · 2011

Theo Boettger · »Meryem Ana« · 49 1/4 x 39 1/3 in (125 x 100 cm) · acrylic and varnish on canvas · 2011

Theo Boettger · »New Pandoras Box« · 90 1/2 x 59 in (230 x 150 cm) · acrylic and varnish on paper · 2011

Theo Boettger · »lovesong for you« · 29 1/2 x 74 3/4 in (75 x 190 cm) · coloured pencil and ink on paper· 2011

Theo Boettger · »Die Erlöser« · 29 1/2 x 78 3/4 in (75 x 200 cm) · coloured pencil, ink on paper · 2011

Theo Boettger · »ballerman« · 29 x 16 3/4 x 21 1/4 in (73,5 x 42,5 x 54 cm) · mixed media · 2010

Theo Boettger · »Capture the Flag« · 130 x 161 1/2 x 236 1/4 in (330 x 410 x 600 cm) · mixed media · 2010

Theo Boettger · »Information« · 114 1/4 x 78 3/4 in (290 x 200 cm) · mixed media on canvas · 2010

Theo Boettger · »Kult« · 35 1/2 x 25 1/4 x 7 in (90 x 64 x 18 cm) · mixed media · 2010

Theo Boettger · »o.T. (Otto Normal)« · 51 1/2 x 39 1/3 x 54 3/4 in (131 x 100 x 139 cm) · mixed media · 2010

Theo Boettger · »Overdose« · 98 1/2 x 118 in (250 x 300 cm) · acrylic and varnish on wood · 2010

Theo Boettger · »o.T. (universe)« · 49 1/4 x 39 1/3 in (125 x 100 cm) · acrylic, varnish and oil stick on canvas · 2010

Theo Boettger · »Don´t Go« · 49 1/4 x 39 1/3 in (125 x 100 cm) · mixed media on canvas · 2009

Theo Boettger · »stress« · 39 1/3 x 27 1/2 in (100 x 70 cm) · acrylic, varnish and oil stick on paper · 2009

Theo Boettger · »dead water« · 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 in (42 x 30 cm) · coloured pencil and ink on paper · 2009

Theo Boettger · »addiction« · 95 2/3 x 95 2/3 in (243 x 243 cm) · acrylic and varnish on paper · 2009

Theo Boettger · »Aspirin« · 114 1/4 x 78 3/4 in (290 x 200 cm) ·
acrylic, varnish, oil and paper on canvas · 2009

Theo Boettger · »agitator« · 39 1/3 x 27 1/2 in (100 x 70 cm) · coloured pencil, ink, acrylic on paper · 2009

Theo Boettger · »we are the world« · 86 2/3 x 78 3/4 in (220 x 200 cm) · acrylic and varnish on paper · 2009

Theo Boettger · »Echo« · 27 1/2 x 19 2/3 in (70 x 50 cm) · oil on canvas · 2008

Theo Boettger · »off« · 78 3/4 x 63 in (200 x 160 cm) · acrylic on canvas · 2008

Theo Boettger · »visor« · 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 in (42 x 30 cm) · coloured pencil and ink on paper · 2008

Theo Boettger · »Japanese Dream« · 91 3/4 x 59 in (210 x 150 cm) · acrylic, ink, varnish spray on paper · 2012

Theo Boettger · »Paar« · 120 x 110 cm · collage · 2013