unexpected disaster

In his monumental work Michel Majerus mixes the image world of the 1990s with expressive painterly gestures. In »Unexpected Disaster«, abstract forms and wild brushstrokes play around gigantic lettering on a backdrop that is more than seven meters wide, awakening associations with graffiti and youth culture on the one hand, and a brand logo on the other. Majerus, who died in 2002 at the age of 35, was fascinated by the cultural signs of his day. Computer games, the start of the Internet age, advertising, consumerism, and the everyday flood of images all form the raw material for his work. He plays with quotes, making no distinction between motifs from art history and the world of commodities. Incredibly productive, he also integrated elements of Pop Art into his pictures. However, it is not just the 1990s that appear in his highly allusive works in constantly new combinations of set pieces. Many of his titles—»Unexpected Disaster« is no exception—are marked by a certain ambiguity. The flip side of bright logos, carefree neon colors and quotes from comics is ever-present, and with it a time which was rich in both pop-cultural developments and political conflicts and upheavals.