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The painter, illustrator and conceptual artist Jim Avignon is one of the most unconventional characters in the current German art world. Vibrant colours and unpretentious materials, a good dose of wit and an enormous output are his trademarks. For the first time an opulent monograph allows a comprehensive insight into the complex oeuvre of the artist, who has always sought confrontation with the establishment and who could never decide whether he wanted to be pop-art, street-art, Picasso on acid or whether he was simply the fastest painter in the world.
Avignon's narrative about "things not going as planned" is full of concise quips and not without a certain delight. He expounds his peculiar relationship with the art market and describes the exhibitions that finally put him on the map as an exceptional artist. We get to read about odd detours into the world of commerce, a stolen bear, paintings that need ironing, call-for-help socks and how a mural almost landed him in jail. Avignon spills the beans about the high and lows of one of the strangest careers the art world has seen in the last 25 years-expect a lot of detail, an ironic undertone and an abundance of images.
Accompanying texts written by ATAK, Sandra Prill, and Lars Willumeit.
About the author
Jim Avignon is one of the most extraordinary figures in the German art scene today. He is a painter, a musician, a performer, a host and curator, and has built a career that consists of these components. Avignon paints a lot, and he paints fast. He calls himself "the fastest painter in the world", and if need be, he sets up a whole exhibition within a few days. His pictures are a mashup of cartoon-like figurations embedded in an expressionistic pictorial structure and titles that control the painting, since they are painted on the canvas. Avignon makes sure that a minimum of lines trigger a maximum expression. Some of his works are to be found in collections and museums worldwide. Yet, the master loves to show his art in clubs, shops or in the streets. His theme is our accelerating society. He uses irony and humour to criticize inequalities and social injustice. "Neoangin" is the name he uses when he is on the road as a musician.
