Walk of Fame X (1), 2014

Maximillian Otte  

Maximillian Otte as a contemporary Pop-art painter from Vienna, Austria. He studied Painting and Graphics and the Academy of Visual Arts on Vienna , where he holds a Masters in Art.

Pop art is an art movement that developed in the 1950s and 1960s. The artists sought to use their works to shed light on consumer society and its advertising methods. Today, the term refers more to an art genre—namely, types of art that deal with trivial subjects—and the word “Pop Art" means exactly what it says: “popular art." With Maximilian Otte, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the art gallery in Bad Dürkheim presents a painter who has found his own unique voice within this genre. He has singled out a mass phenomenon of the 21st century: celebrity culture.

What first catches the eye: glitz and glamour! And that the works—mostly square-meter-sized acrylic paintings on canvas—feature bold colors. At the same time, the graphic elements are important: figures and objects are outlined in black. On display are women with voluptuous forms, bare arms and legs, hair falling in long strands, and always-beaming teeth in pouty lips perpetually ready to smile.

Maximilian Otte offers us a glimpse of the protagonists of the tabloids and TV magazines. Not through explanations or in real time on film, or even as a podcast, as some people today style themselves as role models. But as—what?

Otte's work features mega-celebrities in all forms across eras, but sharing excessive popularity in media culture and pop art, worked in a graphic style. Their figures are stylized; they are symbols. Symbols for people, for things. Symbols like the ones we all drew as small children—a stick figure when we meant a person. In English, these are called “icons." Maximilian Otte doesn't present us with symbols in the aforementioned sense, but he isn't far off: he shows us icons—specifically style icons, idols. He takes them out of their original contexts, even from different eras, and uses the various figures to create tableaux dripping in ritz, famous, smiles, and pearls.