• Michael Langer
  • 1929 Zittau - 2022 Munich

Biography

After studying art in Hamburg, Munich and Paris, Michael Langer created his exciting early work in the 1960s, which is considered complete when he (temporarily) gave up painting in 1969. At the beginning of his career, Langer began to explore the medium of paper and painting, inspired by Cubism. He then masterfully combined abstraction with the emerging Pop Art and created an “Absurd Realism”.

“[…] I want distortions of form in my paintings to be absurd and without justification.
I am looking for the absurd per se.”
Michael Langer in Nina Keller, report on young artists in Munich, Munich 1968

Langer’s work is characterized by a radical conceptual approach: Figures are relentlessly distorted out of proportion and seemingly randomly spread across the page or canvas. He uses a color aesthetic based on comics, outlines and labels, collages and uses mixed techniques and unusual materials such as plaster.

In contrast to American contemporaries such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Michael Langer is relatively unknown, but together with Uwe Lausen he can be classified as the most important representative of German Pop Art.


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Galerie Michael Haas
Niebuhrstraße 5
10629 Berlin

Galerie Michael Haas
Niebuhrstraße 5
10629 Berlin

Kunst Lager Haas
Lise-Meitner-Straße 7-9
10589 Berlin

Kunst Lager Haas
Lise-Meitner-Straße 7-9
10589 Berlin

Phone: +49 (0) 30 88 92 91 0
Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de

Phone: +49 (0) 30 88 92 91 0
Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de

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  • Michael
  • Langer

1947-49 Landeskunstschule Hamburg with Alfred Mahlau

1949-52 Academy of Fine Arts Munich with Franz Xaver Fuhr

1952-53 École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris

1957-75 Teacher of technical drawing and art education in Munich

1962 Art Prize of the Munich Autumn Salon

1969-72 Experimental films Yin, 1969 | Sigma, 1971 | Mutations, 1972

1975-92 Lecturer for art education at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Exhibitions (selection)

2024

Michael Langer. The early work, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2023

Michael Langer – Absurder Realismus, Galerie Hector Hollein, Vienna

Bavarian POP?!, Galerie Clemens Thimme, Karlsruhe

2021

The Future of the Past, Edition Julien Martial, Paris

2020

Rätsel Rätsel, Galerie Clemens Thimme, Karlsruhe

Abstand, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2018

Anna Blume, Ludwig Erhard und Willy Brandt, 8. Salon, Hamburg

Flashes for the Future, Ludwig Forum, Aachen

adieu tristesse… Neue Figurationen. 1953-1968, Museum für Aktuelle Kunst, Offenburg

2017

adieu tristesse… Neue Figurationen. 1953-1968, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim

Porträts der Moderne. Sammlung Klewan, Unteres Belvedere, Vienna

2016

Michael Langer – Anamorphosen, Galerie Clemens Thimme, Karlsruhe

Rendezvous der Künstler. Meisterwerke Sammlung Helmut Klewan, Schaezlerpalais Augsburg

2014

Zerrbilder 1965 – 1969 und 1990 – 2006, Galerie Clemens Thimme, Karlsruhe (S)

German Pop, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a.M. (G)

WAHN-SINN. Jean Dubuffet & Art Brut, Kunstverein Talstrasse e.V., Halle (Saale) (G)

2013

Expanded Media. The Name is BURROUGHS, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (G)

Vagabundierende Unruhe – Gruppe SPUR, Museum für Aktuelle Kunst, Offenburg (G)

2012

Expanded Media, ZKM Karlsruhe (G)

2009

Michael Langer. Zerrbilder 1965 – 1968, Galerie im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd (S)

Bavarian Way of Pop Art, Galerie Marie-José van de Loo, Munich (G)

2008

Michael Langer – Bilder 1965–2007, Kunsthaus Orplid, Munich-Solln (S)

2006

Pop Art – Andy Warhol & Michael Langer, Fischer Kunsthandel, Berlin (S)

2005

Rathausgalerie, Munich (S)

Otto-Galerie, Munich (S)

Galerie Taubenturm, Diessen am Ammersee (S)

1999

Kulturwerk, Augsburg (S)

1998

Universitätsgalerie, Innsbruck (S)

1995

Piccolo Palazzo d’Arte, Meran (S)

Galerie Klewan, Munich (S)

1993

Galerie Klewan, Munich (S)

1991

Michael Langer – Zerrrbilder, Galerie Klewan, Munich (S)

1989

Michael Langer – Bilder der sechziger Jahre, Otto-Galerie, Munich (S)

1968

Galerie Casa, Munich (S)

1964

Écriture Solaire, Galerie du Fleuve, Paris (S)

1963

Galerie Casa, Munich (S)

1962

Herbstsalon, Haus der Kunst, Munich (G)

  • Michael
  • Langer

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