Be Happy!
February 12–May 10, 2026
Thomas Bayrle (b. 1937) is a legend. From February 12 to May 10, 2026, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting a major solo show of the Frankfurt-based artist featuring over fifty works from the last twenty years. Bayrle examines fundamental aspects of modern society in his work. How are religion and society, the individual and the mass, industrially manufactured products and the technical apparatuses of their production connected? Alongside the structures of consumption, work, urbanity, and technology, themes such as mobility, pop and mass culture as well as (substitute) religion all play key roles. The artist explores iconic representations as well as popular works of art history from Michelangelo to Caravaggio, Masaccio, and Claude Monet. On view in this exhibition are paintings and graphic works, sculpture and object art, sound installations and a video work.
Sebastian Baden, Director of the Schirn, notes: “For nearly sixty years, Thomas Bayrle has examined the social impact of an increasingly accelerated, consumption-driven present through visual means. His art is closely intertwined with Frankfurt and is highly regarded worldwide. Bayrle’s life and artistic career have been shaped by technological innovation—from industrialization to digitization. While his compositional principle of the superform anticipated digital pixel aesthetics in his earlier works, it now responds to today’s highly technologized media landscape. At the same time, the artist has never entirely abandoned analog techniques. Presenting his work at our current location, the former Dondorf printing factory, also creates a meaningful connection to this unique site of Frankfurt’s industrial heritage.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, Bayrle laid the innovative groundwork for his characteristic so- called “superforms”. Repetition, connection, and interweaving of single elements into an overall image can be found in almost all of Bayrle’s works to this day and this is closely linked to the artist’s biography. Bayrle initially completed an apprenticeship as a machine weaver before turning to commercial and print graphics. He has continued to use these printing techniques both materially and conceptually in his work, thereby paving the way from analog to digital. His works thus engage in a distinctive dialogue with the current exhibition venue of the Schirn, the industrial building of the former Dondorf printing factory.
The title of the exhibition recalls Bayrle’s formative time as a professor at the Städelschule from 1975 to 2002 and his influence on a subsequent generation of artists. “Be happy!” was a guiding principle that he often liked to give his students. For Bayrle himself, “Be happy!” was a way of life, both an artistic and a political stance.
Matthias Ulrich, curator of the exhibition, further remarks: “With humor and a pioneering spirit, Thomas Bayrle shaped the art world and art history as both an artist and a professor, marked by his understated manner. It is no coincidence that the exhibition bears the title Be Happy!, a phrase his students at the Städelschule heard from him regularly and one that left a lasting impression on many of their lives.
Bayrle’s practice responded to the dominance of Pop Art in the 1960s and to the socially defining consumption of mass-produced goods. Rather than merely critiquing, Bayrle placed the interdependencies and dynamic processes between the masses and the individual at the center of his work. Advocacy of the individual and the opportunities for transforming the whole, which may emerge from the personal and the small, are reflected not only in his pictures but also in the comprehensive approach that has guided his life and work.”
The new print magazine SCHIRN PAPER is published at the new location of the Schirn three times a year. To accompany the exhibition Thomas Bayrle. Be Happy!, issue 2 of the print magazine features articles by Theresa Dettinger and Martin Schmidl.
The exhibition Thomas Bayrle. Be Happy! is supported by Stadt Frankfurt and Hessische Kulturstiftung.
Director: Sebastian Baden / Curator: Matthias Ulrich / Press contact: Johanna Pulz (Head of Press/Public Relations): presse [at] schirn.de / T +49 (0) 69 29 98 82 148 / Press material: here.
