André Butzer
As he turns 50, DAISY WOODWARD quizzes the iconoclastic German artist whose approach to interviews is as colourful as his paintings
Daisy Woodward
Was anyone in your family creative, or were you an “anomaly”? Did you always know you wanted to be an artist?
André Butzer
Hi. I came from a long line of shipbuilders, wine makers, street cleaners and butchers. We came from up on the sun, out of a mirage. We were boiling huevos and seeing monsters everywhere. It was about forbidden places. We were too high to die. No joke. From there on, we have been rising to our knees.
Do you ever reference your childhood in your work?
I don’t know anything about my childhood. I am still trying to find it. I am a very lonely old man now with funny paintings. I don’t know who I am. I have no heart.
Instead of attending a regular art school, you co-founded Akademie Isotrop with fellow-minded artists. What was the most formative moment you had as a self-taught student?
I forgot most [things] about it in the meantime. It was too much for me. People were very involved in it. I didn’t fit in. And I was kicked out. Or was this from the other school? I hate schools but I love the students.
Can you expand a little on your personal form of expressionism?
All I can say is for now, there is no personal form of expressing yourself. It doesn’t exist. Expression is either universal and very common and everywhere, or nowhere. Art is not helpful at all. People misuse art for what they think is helpful.
Where did your fascination with pop culture come from?
I am less and less fascinated with anything that is or seems “Pop”. I have to say, I am starting to be very bored by it and I am working very effectively against it, but I do this as peacefully as possible. I am the owner of 500 Cézanne catalogues. He is the best. He is the biggest threat to everyone. His brushstrokes are threatening us. He has destroyed stupid Pop, even before it was invented! Pop is a lie. It’s a trap.
What do you enjoy most about painting?
Nothing. I try to not paint, but I can’t.
What do you enjoy least?
Governments and the global organisations behind them.
Is there anything about you that surprises people?
They think I am somebody else.
Any plans for the future?
Over the next decades, I want to prepare myself for my death. There will be an endless number of decades. I will return in a different body and bring joy, again and again. It’s all about the joy!