Archetypes and Tronies: Icons in Play

Pit Buehler draws inspiration from the portrait paintings of Old Masters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Velázquez, as well as the bizarre, multi-layered characters from Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. His portraits function as modern tronies: expressive character studies of absolute autonomy, each individual image possessing its own narrative density and capable of telling a complex story on its own. Only in the deliberate juxtaposition and interplay of these iconic archetypes, however, does the full, multifaceted narrative unfold. Buehler places the figures in new, unexpected dialogues – in conflict, in resonance, or in silent correspondence with each other. These constellations are not a mere addition of images but an iconic condensation in which the character studies reflect, overlap, and merge with each other. Thus, Buehler transforms the Baroque idea into the present: autonomous faces give rise to a visual tapestry that places the diversity of human roles within an overarching, universal context.