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Artists›Werner Büttner

Werner Büttner

Artist

Figuration

Representation

None documented

Institutional Exhibitions

Works in Collection

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Authority-backed Facts

Publications Referenced

70%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Movements

• Figuration

Related Artists

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Authority Records (1)

MoMA

About

Why this artist matters now

Werner Büttner is a German painter and sculptor whose practice navigates the formal tensions between abstraction and figuration while engaging directly with postwar German cultural memory. Working across painting and mixed media since the 1970s, he constructs works that refuse easy resolution between these modes, treating the canvas and sculptural form as sites of historical and material inquiry. His approach resists both the utopian claims of abstraction and the documentary impulse of figuration, instead holding both in productive dissonance.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 26d ago

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Movement

Figuration

Medium

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12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Museum of Modern ArtNew York

Canonical record

Artworks (13)

Malen ist Wahlen,

1992 · Catalogue, offset lithograph printed

page (each): 10 15/16 × 8 1/8" (27.8 × 20.6 cm); overall (closed): 10 15/16 × 8 3/16 × 3/8" (27.8 × 20.8 × 0.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Malen ist Wahlen,

1992 · Catalogue, offset lithograph printed

page (each): 10 15/16 × 8 1/8" (27.8 × 20.6 cm); overall (closed): 10 15/16 × 8 3/16 × 3/8" (27.8 × 20.8 × 0.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Untitled from the Museum in Progress project The Message as Medium

1991 · Lithograph, offset printed

sheet (two-page spread): 18 1/2 x 24 13/16" (47 x 63 cm); composition (two-page spread): 10 1/4 x 19 11/16" (26 x 50 cm); composition (lithograph on right): 10 1/4 x 7 1/2" (26 x 19 cm); composition (lithograph on left): 10 1/16 x 6 15/16" (25.5 x 17.7 cm)

11 3/4 x 8 3/8" (29.8 x 21.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Akt und Polizei Auto Larm

1989 · Mixed media

11 3/4 x 8 3/8" (29.8 x 21.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Widows ONE Two

1988 · Linoleum cut with rubber stamp

composition: 23 1/16 × 29 7/16" (58.5 × 74.8 cm); sheet (slightly irreg.): 27 3/16 × 33 3/16" (69 × 84.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

WattsOS

Widow One TWO

1988 · Linoleum cut with rubber stamp

composition (irreg.): 22 13/16 × 29 5/16" (58 × 74.5 cm); sheet: 27 3/16 × 33 3/16" (69 × 84.3 cm)

11 3/4 x 8 3/8" (29.8 x 21.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

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Art Institute of Chicago

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Movements and affiliations

Figuration

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Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

Market

Auction sale history

Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction

Market

Auction History

Work	Auction House	Date	Estimate	Hammer Price
Untitled	Phillips	Jun 2025	$2,000 – $3,000	Unsold

Record

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