Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1952 Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)

Year of Migration to the UK: 1981

Biography

Artist, writer, curator, and teacher, Pavel Büchler was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1952. Showing creative talent early on, at the age of 13 he wrote a history essay that won him a two-hour flight over the capital city (Wainwright, 2010). In Czechoslovakia Büchler was trained in printing, graphic design and typography at the State School of Graphic Arts from 1970–72 and at the Institute of Applied Arts from 1973–76. At this time, from Büchler’s own account, ‘being an artist was a matter of defending a meaningful concept of personal freedom’ (Doyle, 2012). Initially inspired by Czechoslovak artists, Vladimír Boudník and Milan Knížák, and Polish performance artist, Tadeusz Kantor, Büchler’s work attested to ‘the importance of models of art-making based upon the creation of simple yet charged actions, gestures, and situations’ (Krčma, 2020). He moved to England after ‘he was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1981 for showing the subversive spirit still apparent in his art’ (Carey-Kent, 2015).

When he first arrived in England, Büchler was shocked at the ‘vanity’ of the art scene and how ‘visually aggressive Western Culture was’, leading to his preference for what he calls ‘technical economy’ in his works that are kept ‘light and simple’ (Büchler, 2017). In 1983 he co-founded the Cambridge Darkroom gallery and curated most of its exhibitions until 1987. There he discovered that ‘the advocacy of the place of art was just as necessary in this society as in any other’ (Doyle, 2012). Establishing himself as an artist and exhibiting widely in the UK, Büchler began writing and teaching in the early 1990s, and was appointed Head of Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art in 1992, a role from which he resigned in 1996. He first visited Manchester for a residency at Chetham’s Library the same year. There his work was ‘haunted by the ghost of Karl Marx’, as he projected a red St. George's flag on the cathedral spire from the window of the library where Marx and Engels worked in the 1840s (Doyle, 2012). Büchler settled in Manchester a year later to begin a Research Professor post in the Faculty of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University. He became involved in a thriving art scene there, including the art agency and exhibition and project space The Annual Programme (later the The International 3). Later, reflecting on this time, Büchler stated that the local art scene had ‘a sense of identity, collective purpose and possibility, and for a while the place seemed very much artist-led’ (Doyle, 2012). In 1999 he published Ghost Stories: Stray Thoughts on Photography and Film.

Following a string of significant solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally, including Pavel Büchler at Program, London (2004), Pavel Büchler at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2007), and Labour in Vain at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2010), Büchler won the 2010 Northern Art Prize. On winning the prize, he stated that it was regrettable that artists outside of London should have to compete for interest: ‘I really don’t think that we should be put in a position where art is treated as a competitive sport’, he said, continuing that ‘It is good to see so many people here and so much interest, but perhaps equally a reason to despair’ (Wainwright, 2010). Five years later he held his largest UK survey to date, (Honest) Work, at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Showcasing a wide range of media including text, found objects, obsolete technologies and appropriated digital material, the exhibition was ‘as much about controlling people through language and print as it is about hegemonic structures’ (Hancock, 2015). In an interview with Art Monthly about the exhibition, Büchler challenged the ‘London-centric idea of contemporary art in the UK’, having never lived there, and that the appeal of Manchester, ‘the suburb of the art world as it may be, is that the city seems to have enough self-confidence not to care too much about such distinctions’ (Briers, 2015). Büchler has since been involved in several UK group exhibitions, including Confusion of Tongues: Art and the Limits of Language at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2016), Public View at Bluecoat, Liverpool in 2017 (curated by Bryan Biggs) and ANTS AND GRASSHOPPERS: Reflections on the Anxious Object at Flat Time House, London in 2021 (curated by David Thorp). Internationally, he has exhibited in numerous exhibitions, including Sanguine: Luc Tuymans on Baroque at Fondazione Prada in Milan, Italy (2018), and Image (of) Silence at the National Gallery, Prague (2019).

Pavel Büchler lives and works in Manchester, where he is Emeritus Professor in Fine Art at Manchester School of Art. In addition to many international public collections, in the UK [public domain his works can be found in the collections of Leeds Art Gallery and Tate, among others.

Related books

Ed Krčma, 'Compression and Riddlecraft: On Pavel Büchler's 'Small Sculptures,'' Umění, Vol. 2, No. 68, 2020, pp. 154-171
Pavel Büchler, Somebody's Got to Do It: Selected Writings by Pavel Büchler Since 1987, edited by Nick Thurston (London: Ridinghouse, 2017)
Paul Carey-Kent, 'Pavel Büchler', Frieze, Iss. 173, September 2015
Mark Hancock, 'Pavel Büchler', The Wire, Iss. 379, September 2015
David Briers, 'Pavel Büchler Interviewd by David Briers: Honest Work', Art Monthly, June 2015, pp. 1-4
Tommy Simoens ed., Pavel Buchler: Honest Work (Birmingham: Ikon Gallery Limited, 2015)
Adrian Searle, Pavel Büchler, and Maria Balshaw, Pavel Büchler: Idle Thoughts (Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery, 2013)
Mark Doyle, 'The Special Ones: Pavel Büchler', Corridor8, September 2012, pp. 33-41
Joan Key, 'Pavel Büchler', Third Text, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2007, pp. 451-455
Nick Crowe, 'Pavel Büchler', Art Monthly, No. 279, September 2004, pp. 37-38
Pavel Büchler, Ben Cook, and Natasha Howes eds., Beyond the Endgame: Abstract Painting in Manchester (Manchester: Manchester City Galleries, 2003)
Tanya Leighton and Pavel Büchler, Saving the Image: Art After Film (Glasgow: Centre for Contemporary Arts, 2003)
Pavel Büchler, Ghost Stories: Stray Thoughts on Photography and Film (London: Proboscis, 1999)
David Harding and Pavel Büchler eds., Decadent: Public Art (Glasgow: Foulis Press, 1997)
Pavel Büchler, Marx Angels (London: Book Works, 1997)
Pavel Büchler, Pausing for Breath: A Lecture on Censorship and Consensus (Glasgow: Glasgow School of Art, 1996)
Pavel Büchler and Nikos Papastergiadis eds., Random Access 2: Ambient fears (London: Rivers Oram, 1996)
Pavel Büchler and Nikos Papastergiadis eds., Random Access: On Crisis and Its Metaphors (London: Rivers Oram, 1995)
Cris Cheek, 'Readings', The Times, 17 May 1990, p. 22
Pavel Büchler, Pavel Büchler: Untitled Portraits (Glasgow: Third Eye Centre, 1988)
Thomas Hood, Hood Winked, illustrated by Pavel Büchler (London: Chatto & Windus, 1982)

Public collections

Related organisations

Cambridge Darkroom (founder)
Glasgow School of Art (Head of the Fine Art department)
Manchester Metropolitan University (Research Professor in the Faculty of Art and Design)
Manchester School of Art (Emeritus Professor in Fine Art )
Northern Art Prize (Recipient)
The Annual Programme (Member)

Selected exhibitions

ANTS AND GRASSHOPPERS: Reflections on the Anxious Object, Flat Time House, London (2021)
Faster Than Ever, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2020)
Image (of) Silence, National Gallery, Prague (2019)
Sanguine: Luc Tuymans on Baroque, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2018)
Public View, Bluecoat, Liverpool (2017)
Condo, Tanya Leighton and the Modern Institute at Harald Street, London (2017)
(Honest) Work, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2015)
Idle Thoughts, The Whitworth, Manchester (2013)
Acid and Nicotine, Max Wigram Gallery, London (2013)
No New Work, Max Wigram Gallery, London (2012)
Studio Schwitters, Max Wigram Gallery, London (2010)
Labour in Vain, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2010)
The Northern Art Prize 2009, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds (2009)
Pavel Büchler, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2007)
Pavel Büchler, Program, London (2004)
Liverpool Biennale of Contemporary Art, Liverpool (1999)
Pavel Büchler, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh (1997)
Library Relocations, Chetham's Library, Manchester (1996)
Freedom, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow (1995)
Untitled Portraits, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow and Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge (1988-1989)
AM/OR, Camerawork, London (1987)
The Wall, Bookworks, London (1986)
Artists in Focus, Morley Gallery, London (1982)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Pavel Büchler]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Pavel Büchler artist