German artist Thomas Müller (°1959) works exclusively in the medium of drawing. The use of oil and acrylic paints and the exploration of colored surfaces bear witness of the openness of his discourse in the field of drawing. Müller persistently develops his pictorial language while formulating new elements, driven by the act of creating itself. Each drawing is a gamble. Every line drawn with a blue ballpoint pen or a colored pencil creates not only a pictorial setting, but evokes also distinctions as well as associations. Only seldom the artist’s hand is directed by coincidence.

Thomas Müller often combines several individual sheets in group-shaped arrangements, creating a network of references but also ruptures. The motifs unfold in complementary poles: complexity and simplicity, nervousness and calmness, abundance and emptiness, order and chaos. The dramaturgy of streaming and meandering lines also characterizes the large-format drawings. They do not present a particular shape or motive, but rather a spatial experiment. Lines emerge radially from a darkly accentuated vertical center and produce a suction effect in the silvery luster of the graphite.

Thomas Müller is considered as one of Germany’s most important contemporary draftsmen and is represented in international exhibitions and collections. He participated in the exhibition Contemporary Positions in German Drawing in Milwaukee (2002) and was an artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa in 2003. He has attracted attention for his exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2003, in the exhibition series Zeichnung heute (Drawing Today), in 2010 for his nomination for the renowned Prix de dessin contemporain of the Fondation Guerlain, Paris, and in 2017 for his participation in a group show at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Thomas Müller’s work is included among others in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, Deutsche Bank Collection, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Neuchâtel, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf (Hanck Collection), Museum Schloss Moyland, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, the McNay Art Museum, Texas, The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, Michigan.