ANDREAS DOBLER
Exhibition from 16 March to 1 June 2003
organized in collaboration with Kunsthaus Glarus (Switzerland)

In his MAGASIN exhibition, Dobler presents about 50 pieces -his most recent paintings as well as a selection of previous ones, thus facilitating an overview of his work since 1985.

Andreas Dobler’s preferred medium is painting. During the course of his anything but linear career characterized by recurring excursions into other cultural areas including music, film and theater, painting remains the most constant element in his activity.
Distancing himself drastically from the inquiring issues of radical painting – one of the few creative expressions in the 90s not regarded as wholly anachronistic – Dobler has committed himself from the beginning to figuration. It is his aim, not to reflect on painting and its art historical implications, but to give form in the most economic and exact manner possible to the whole host of his inner conceptions through the medium of painting.

Strongly affected in his youth by pop music, by psychedelic culture and its related neo-surrealism of the 1960s and 1970s as well as by science fiction and comic aesthetics, Dobler still continues to draw from the resource of media-influenced youth and commonplace culture. Although his predilection for the fantastic was temporarily tempered at the School of Arts in Basel his interest in trivial subjects, popular cultural phenomena and the aesthetic fringes of art have persisted. He has sustained a balancing act between the artistic tradition of pop art, postmodern trash and rubbish, and in so doing his work echoes that of Martin Kippenberger or Jim Shaw, to cite just two examples.

The everyday objects, such as chocolate rabbits and Q-tips, shoetrees and bull workers, that tended to be his favorite motifs in the 1980s were replaced a decade later by deserted hotel facilities, science fiction landscapes, prison-like interiors, or shopping centers: projection rooms of longing, fear and visions of the future bred by our consumer society.
Into these artistically, Dobler has for years been incorporating on the one hand trash elements from the erotic plane as well as from the sphere of horror films or rock music, on the other hand allusions to “high art” in the form of unadulterated painting or sculptures reminiscent of classical modernists such as Henry Moore or Jean Arp.

BIOGRAPHY
Andreas Dobler was Born in Biel in 1963. He lives and works in Zurich.

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
DRIP ZONE, 1999
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 240 x 200 cm
Courtesy City of Zurich art collection

ASTEROIDENSPLITTER, 1998
ink on paper, 170 x 200 cm
Courtesy Private Collection

CEPHEI II, 1999
spray paint on canvas, 200 x 140 cm
Courtesy Collection Andreas Züst

ASTEROID, 1999
ink and spray paint on canvas, 240 x 200 cm
Courtesy of the artist

DELIRIUS III, 1999
ink on paper, 150 X 420 cm
Courtesy of the artist

LANDSCHAFT AUF MERKUR, 1999
batik on fabric, 210 X 168 cm
Courtesy of the artist

INTOXIKA, 2003
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 190 x 333 cm
Courtesy of the artist

SCHWEBEBROCKEN, 1999
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 187 x 270 cm
Courtesy of the artist

TWILIGHT DRIVE, 1999
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 167 x 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist

UNFERTIGE LANDSCHAFT, 2001
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 167 x 280 cm
Courtesy of the artist

EVIL SHELF, 2002
oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 168 x 270 cm
Courtesy of the artist

SENSE CUBE, 1988
acrylic on canvas, 95 x 132 cm
Courtesy Collection Andreas Züst

TORSO, 1999
acrylic and spray paint on canvas,167 X 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist

SPLURT, 1999
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 187 X 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist

GRAL, 1986
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 251 x 251 cm
Courtesy Kunsthaus Zürich

MUSIKRAUM, 1994
acrylic on canvas, 220 x 260 cm
Courtoisie Collection Marc Fischer, Zürich

DIE VIELFALT DER NATUR, 1985-86
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 274 x 200 cm (two parts, 137 x 200 cm each)
Courtesy Private Collection

SHEEP PIECE ON ELECTRIC MEADOW, 1999
ink and spray paint on paper, 200 x 450 cm
Courtesy of the artist

KRYLONIT, 1998
acrylic on canvas, 130 x 200 cm
Courtesy of the artist

RESURRECTION, 2001
sculpture, various materials, 160 x 70 x 60 cm
Courtesy of the artist

DIE GROSSE BEFREIUNG, 1990
acrylic on canvas, 82 x 160 cm
Courtesy of the artist

NATASCHA, 2001
oil on canvas, 84 x 64 cm
Courtesy Collection Patrick Frey, Zurich

MONA, 2001
oil on canvas, 84 x 64 cm
Courtesy of the artist

RETURN TO FOREVER II, 2001
oil and spray paint on canvas,167 X 250 cm
Courtesy Private Collection

KOMPOSITION VII, 2002
acrylic and spray paint on canvas,166 x 420 cm (two parts, 160 x 210 cm each)
Courtesy of the artist

AUS DER FRÜHZEIT DES TRANSZENDENTALEN KONSTRUKTIVISMUS, 1994
felt tip pen and batik on fabric, 90 x 160 cm
Courtesy Collection Marc Fischer, Zurich

DIE GLÜCKSZAHL, 1997
oil on canvas, 62 x 90 cm
Courtesy Private Collection

MANDALA, 1994
acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm
Courtesy Collection Patrick Frey, Zurich

UNTERBRECHUNG EINES SPIELFILMS AUF SAT 1, 1994
acrylic on canvas, 100 x 130 cm
Courtesy Collection Patrick Frey, Zurich

FONTAINEBLEAU, 1999
oil on canvas, 63 x 80 cm
Courtesy Collection Andreas Züst

HOTELZIMMER, 1997
oil on canvas, 63 x 94 cm
Courtesy City of Zurich art collection

CASA DEL SOL, 1997
oil on canvas, 62 x 110 cm
Courtesy City of Zurich art collection

PUERTO DEL CARMEN I, 1996
oil on canvas, 26 x 58 cm
Courtesy Collection Andreas Züst

PUERTO DEL CARMEN II, 1996
oil on canvas, 21 x 53 cm
Courtesy Collection Patrick Frey, Zurich

FOUR SEASONS, LIMASSOL, 1996
oil on canvas, 33 x 59 cm
Courtesy Collection Andreas Züst

TEGUISOL, 1996
oil on canvas, 31 x 53 cm
Courtesy of the artist

BRAUTSCHAU, 1985
acrylic on wood
four parts, 22 x 15 cm each
Courtesy Private Collection

THE DEMON OF PAINTING, 2001
ink and pencil on paper, 44 x 62 cm
Courtesy Collection Centrik Isler, Zurich

CHAINS BY NIGHT, 2001
oil and spray paint on canvas, 140 x 180 cm
Courtesy of the artist

DESPAIR, 2000
ink on parper, 200 x 340 cm
Courtesy of the artist

FOUNTAINHEADZ, 2001
ink and felt tip pen on paper, 150 x 240 cm
Courtesy of the artist

CUBIC SWEAT, 2000
ink on paper, 150 x 240 cm
Courtesy of the artist

SPIDER GALAXY, 2002
ink on paper, 150 x 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist

SCULPTURE FOR CAPTAIN BLISS, 2001
oil on canvas, 63 x 90 cm
Courtesy Collection Patrick Frey, Zurich