Owe Büttner Makes Peace with Time and Looks into the Past

This week Owe Büttner's personal exhibition was opened in Gallery of the Castellan's House in Kadriorg.
Büttner, who stepped into Estonian artistic life in the end of 1980s, has stood aloof from exhibition activities for some time and has now brought to the eyes of the public an overview of his creation.
"Mythological Paintings" exposes sixteen works from the period of 1987 up to 2005, half of which Estonian public has not been shown before.
Owe Büttner is neither an artist who strives to open up the running sores of society, criticize the culture of consuming, nor point to the "sandbox games" of politicians with his creation. Büttner, who paints only on canvas and uses only oils, is politically correct. He deals with eternal themes hidden in the artistic soul instead of present-day problems.

A homage to the past

Predominantly large-size and abstract compositions are also not based on modernistic thirst for novelty. Graces, Pans and madonnas, not faces familiar from mass culture and ordinary mortals walk around on the canvases. This is a kind of stroll in time more than a hundred years back, when the art was still located on the Parnassus and people came to admire it between the museum walls with devotion. However, Büttner's paintings do not seem obsolete, but give the impression of the artist's homage to the past.
In the end of 1980s, when Büttner stepped into artistic life, the general tendency also was to examine the more classical heritage of painting. From the aspect of painting methods, the themes originating from the treasury of traditional painting - religious and secular legends and narratives - have been settled from glazing to pointillism. The use of old techniques forms a vital part of Büttner's artistic credo; it is not just experimenting or a search for an easier way. Thus, the exhibition scenery of Tallinn has been diversified with a personal exhibition, which does not aim to develop the viewers' critical mind, but to make peace with time.