Le Paris Bar à Paris — Suzanne Tarasieve, Loft 19 — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 8 → March 12, 2011

This exhibition celebrates Berlin’s art scene from the 60’s to the present day, marked by a turning point in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is also a tribute to the original life of Michel Würthle, graphic artist, collector and owner of the Paris Bar, located at 152 Kantstrasse in Berlin.

Opened in 1950, the mythical Paris Bar is taken over in 1977 by Michel Würthle, an art lover who brings this place to life with passion. A headquarters for the intellectuals, this bistro is a place of freedom where the world is set to rights during entire nights : artists such as his great friends Martin Kippenberger and Dieter Roth, A.R. Penck, Benjamin Katz, Albert Oehlen, Jonathan Meese, Jannis Kounellis, Jörg Immendorff and Christoph Steinmeyer, who recently redid Martin Kippenberger’s famous painting of the Paris Bar ; celebrities like Dustin Hoffmann, Iggy Pop and David Bowie; merchants like Rudolph Springer and Michael Werner; comedians, musicians and playwrights, such as Heiner Müller who wrote in 1991 the introductory text of the book published by Editions Artcurial and dedicated to this unique place.

The exhibition’s curator, Michel Würthle, crosses time. A graphic artist, he divides his life between Berlin and Syros (Greece), a place full of memories where he made four handed paintings with Daniel Richter or Damien Hirst. The Paris Bar in Paris is an illustration of his life, of his painter, sculptor and poet friends, but also a focus on the work of photographer Benjamin Katz through a series of portraits in black and white of Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Markus Lüpertz, Andy Warhol and Dennis Hopper.

The gallery also presents Michel Würthle’s bibliographical work around this landmark of West Berlin, documents, books and correspondence.