This graphic artwork was created by Luxembourg artist Michel Majerus, a remarkable personality of the contemporary scene of the early 21st century.

After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he studied from 1986 to 1992, he settled in Berlin. A pupil of American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, he knew how to capture the different trends of his time (street art, underground, video games, mass media, overconsumption). He combined them with references to art history, including Pop Art and Minimal Art, in order to integrate them into his creations, thus developing a highly personal pictorial vocabulary (logos, slogans, comics). Several retrospective exhibitions have paid tribute to him since his untimely death at the age of 35. Examples of his oeuvre can be found in renowned international collections, such as at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Our work is part of a series begun in 1996 and entitled MoM Blocks, a reference to the location of his workshop at “Modezentrum Mitte”, a former factory outlet located in Berlin-Mitte (former GDR). These MoM Blocks are either 160 x 140 cm or 200 x 180 cm acrylics on canvas that can be hung together in a mural composition or separately.

Some works, like this one, are untitled. The museum also has two other paintings from this series (MoM Blocks No. 74 and No. 76).

Our screen print on cotton is an oversized green bubble with the inscription “motivation” on a neutral white background. There are three screen prints with the same subject, all made in 1998. The three versions, of identical size, all show the same bubble but turned and at a different position in the composition. It is reminiscent of a screen saver. Majerus was a video game enthusiast, sometimes spending entire nights playing “Super Mario”. When hung together, the two or three bubbles suggest movement as in a video game.

The bubble motif reappears in several of his works, each time with different inscriptions. The same bubble can be seen in two sepia drawings from the Printer’s Proof series.