The works of Harald F. Müller are events and provocations simultaneously. They are events for the act of seeing and provocations for the act of thinking. Müller is not interested in categories; he prefers to operate in the in-between. His works move between surface and space, image reproduction and color conception, painting and architecture.

Müller is constantly on the move, traveling and living with open eyes to details, joyfully drawing from the overwhelming visual and chromatic wealth of our time. He processes both old and new, demanding and banal images. He understands the power of images, the qualities of centuries‑old pigments, and the latest possibilities in pigment formulation. Müller’s gaze is radically contemporary and becomes freer with each exhibition. By consistently resisting any premature rationalization, he opposes the one‑dimensional relegation and degeneration of humanity toward homo oeconomicus. What is depicted may remain incomprehensible — devoid of any utility. It is precisely here that his works gain their relevance.

Müller possesses at least two indispensable collections: his found photographic images and his infinite palette of colors. In his studio, there is a “color room” in which he has gathered over nine hundred pigments, and three additional rooms full of boxes where image findings are stored. Müller moves through the world with impressive precision in his search. Thus, his most recent image series, titled “SAS,” begins with an unbearably provocative motif: a lightly clad woman, often blonde, holding a weapon, preferably a submachine gun. What worked millions of times as a cover for the crime‑thriller series “SAS” by Gérard de Villiers and thus became common‑sense popular entertainment need not necessarily be lost to high culture. In Friedrichshafen, one of these “SAS” images marks the entry point to the exhibition “Painter and Model” — a title that sparks imaginative fantasies. One associates an image of a seductive woman, alone with the painter in his studio: as a muse inspiring him. One of the great topos of Western image history, beginning with Apelles and Campaspe, continues in brilliant visual creations by Titian or Raphael, Vermeer or Courbet, through Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Koons — and now Harald F. Müller — for him too, one motif among many. One does not know what to expect: certainly images, certainly colors, and surely a declaration of love to painting — only it will be different. (JvdB)

Biographical Overview — Harald F. Müller
Born 1950 in Karlsruhe; lives and works in Singen

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015/16 Harald F. Müller – SAS, Mirko Mayer Galerie, Cologne
2015 Harald F. Müller – Ciba Noir, Magazin4 – Bregenzer Kunstverein
2014 “1984?”, MAI 36 Galerie, Zurich
2013 Cut, Mirko Mayer Galerie, Cologne | Le Rouge et le Noir, MAI 36 Galerie, Zurich
2011 No Return, Mirko Mayer Galerie, Cologne
2009 Black Fungus, MAI 36 Galerie, Zurich
1995 Fosse aux Lions, can – Centre d’Art, Neuchatel
1994 Harald F. Müller / Sam Samore, Kunsthalle Zurich
1992 Fosse aux Lions, Christian Nagel Galerie, Cologne | Harald F. Müller, Galerie Carée, Villa Arson, Nice

Selected Group Exhibitions
2012 Venice Architecture Biennale – collaboration with Gigon/Guyer
2004 Nice Fine Arts, MAI 36 Galerie, Zurich
2000 Les Fleurs du Mal, Art Unlimited, Art Basel | Here, There and Everywhere, public art in Singen am Hohentwiel
1999 Harald Braun / Harald F. Müller, Kunstverein Baselland, Basel
1997 Ingrid Luche, Ulrich Strotjohann, Harald F. Müller, Magazin4 – Bregenzer Kunstverein in cooperation with Nice Fine Arts, Nice

Projects
2015 Werkhof – St. Gallen, Allemann Bauer Eigenmann Architects
2014/15 Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, color concept
2013 Löwenbräu Areal in Zurich, with Gigon & Guyer
2012 Google Headquarters, Zurich, with züst gübeli gambetti, color concept
2011/15 Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur — wall paint and fabric coverings for the exhibitions
2011 First Cuts, Prime Tower, Zurich, in cooperation with Gigon & Guyer
2004 Wall painting for the new renovation of Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland
2005–2015 Seven Color‑Room Projects, Stuttgart University Campus

Curator: Jörg van den Berg