For over a decade, Michel Majerus (1967–2002) created an intensely prolific body of work before dying in a tragic plane accident when he was 34. Since this untimely departure, Majerus’s work has continued to ignite institutions and galleries with early digital and painterly fervor. His collective body of work in many ways being indicative of his decade – he employed technology such as computers and projectors to create paintings that prod with the visual language of advertising and popular culture, including appropriating other artists’ work. Yet Majerus’s freedom of expression and exploration also ensured that his work resonates beyond this momentary time capsule, offering endless possibility for investigation and thus remaining ever relevant. The latest investigative iteration opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami on November 29, 2022, in time for Art Basel Miami Beach, and continues through March 23, 2023. The exhibition aims to highlight Majerus’s relationship with the United States, unpack his fascination with consumer culture and advertising, and reflect on an infinitely impactful oeuvre.
Born in Luxembourg, Majerus studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with renowned conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, before moving to Berlin. Although shortened, his exhibition career was significant, underscored by a midcareer survey at Kunsthalle Basel in 1996, where he showed large dioramic paintings including the multiple-panel Katze (Cat) (1993), among others. This was followed by yet sometimes what is read successfully, stops us with its meaning, no. II (1998), an enormous pop- and logo-inspired ‘sneaker’painting in a cinema complex lobby for Manifesta 2, and a reflective mural titled Sun in 10 Different Directions on the Italian Pavilion facade for the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. These catalytic moments illustrate Majerus’s creative breadth with painting, then expanded to three-dimension with a half-pipe skateboard ramp he titled If We Are Dead, So It Is for an exhibition at the Cologne Kunstverein in 2000.
Majerus embraced mainstream culture. A yearlong residency in Los Angeles in 2001, a city where billboards, Hollywood, and visual media dominate, fueled his fascination with branding and logos, and expanding his explorations with digital media and scale.
‘Progressive Aesthetics’ is the first United States museum exhibition for Majerus. Curated by ICA Miami’s Artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld and curator Stephanie Seidel, the curators took inspiration from Majerus’scuriosity with American pop culture and consumerism. Titled after one of the artist’s signature paintings, ‘Progressive Aesthetics’ illuminates Majerus’s interest in the contemporary, technology and culture, and modernist histories, and collates significant artworks yet to be seen collectively.
‘We started working on the exhibition over five years ago; it has been delayed several times due to the pandemic. Now, incidentally, it falls on the 20th anniversary of his [Majerus’s] passing. An important text painting of Majerus’s reads, “In Europe everything is more serious than in the USA,” which playfully suggests his approach to art and culture in these respective places,’ shares Gartenfeld.
Twenty-one years ago, in Los Angeles, Majerus created paintings such as XXX to show both the menacing powers and titillating seduction of advertising. Majerus engaged in further digital explorations, making 3mmT-2a re-depiction of a NASCAR car crash reestablishing the image as a spectacular disaster rife for audiences’ covetous consumption. His splash bombs paintings depict the spiraling packaging of water toys with washing machine-like effect, appearing large on the canvas to metaphorically perform the ominous explosion the toy’s name suggests.
‘When you saw a painting by Majerus, you weren’t just seeing a painting, you were seeing an object that was to perform as a painting by Majerus,’ artist Cory Arcangel said in a 2022 Mousse magazine interview.
Majerus’s performativity translated to appropriating other artists’ work and inserting himself as collaborator. Sharing an affinity for expressionism and ‘pop’ with artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Majerus intervened on screen-print appropriations of their collaborative work as a belated third participant. Gartenfeld explains, ‘Reprinting a crop of these works, he added only minor painterly additions – mostly, just a single monochromatic or de Kooning-like paint stroke. These are truly iconic works of appropriation.’
It is also rare to see these works together, and five of the 20 MoM Block paintings showing the Warhol/Basquiat collaboration interventions will be on view at ICA Miami. Gartenfeld continues, ‘Michel was obsessed with the masters of art history and the persona of the artist.’
Today, the Michel Majerus Estate in Berlin hosts programming, including a current exhibition of works by Majerus and his former professors, the artists Joseph Kosuth and K.R.H Sonderborg. Three other shows in Berlin are also running concurrently with the artist’s retrospective exhibition at ICA Miami: KW Institute for Contemporary Art is hosting an exhibition of the artist’s early works, produced between 1990 and 1996; the neighboring gallery neugerriemschneider has restaged their very first show with the artist; and on December 17, the neuer berliner kunstverein will open an exhibition dedicated to his spatial installations.Plus, the Kunstverein in Hamburg is hosting ‘Data Streaming’, an exhibition focused on the role of technology in Majerus’s later works.
Beyond such exhibitions, the Michel Majerus Estate also functions as a digital archive and catalogue raisonné resource and provides context to curators and artists in dialogue with Majerus’s practice. In fact, renowned artist Takashi Murakami contacted the estate asking to use Majerus’s image in his work – echoing Majerus’sapproach to appropriation. These posthumous collaborations are indicative of Majerus’s playful spirit and embrace of free expression that has ensured his artwork and his legacy continue to burn brightly.
This article was originally commissioned for the Art Basel Miami Beach magazine 2022.
‘Michel Majerus: Progressive Aesthetics’ runs November 28, 2022 – March 12, 2023, at the ICA Miami. ‘Michel Majerus: Early Works’ is on view until January 15, 2023, at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. ‘kosuth majerus sonderborg – an installation by Joseph Kosuth’ runs through March 18, 2023, at the Michel Majerus Estate, Berlin. ‘Michel Majerus—gemälde, 1994’ runs through January 14, 2023, at neugerriemschneider, Berlin. ‘Michel Majerus: Data Streaming’ runs December 12, 2022 – February 12, 2023, at the Kunstverein in Hamburg. ‘Michel Majerus’ runs December 17, 2022 – February 5, 2023, at the neuer berliner kunstverein.
Top image: Michel Majerus, ca. 2001. Photo by Edith Majerus. © Edith Majerus, 2022. Courtesy Michel Majerus Estate and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. A dark filter was applied over the image for readability.