WON ABC

WON in his Munich studio

WON drawing in the studio

WON ABC (born September 15, 1967 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz , actually Markus Müller) is a German graffiti-writing artist, comic author , graphic artist and action artist .

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Against the background of all world religions and influenced by them, the graffiti artist has been painting monumental scenarios and comics interwoven with zombies , mythological figures and hip-hop musicians since the 1980s . His apocalypses , often critical of the church, address the victory of nature over technology, of fantasy over the functional in a western world that was organized to death for him. WON ABC achieved international renown within the writer scene, which was networked globally from the start, after spectacular art events on four continents.

Beginnings

Inspired by the film Wild Style, WON sprayed his first piece "Fast" in 1984 in Ottobrunn near Munich . Four years later, in 1988, he called the Art Bombing Clan , the ABC, together with Cowboy 69 . It still exists today. WON was thus significantly involved in initiating the Munich graffiti scene. This was officially attested to him. Police investigators attested the 28-year-old sprayer during his 1996 trial that he was "one of the best in Europe". Rightly so, but with a six-month sentence, on probation. The son of a Bavarian ministerial official was early on "one of the best writers in Germany" and in the late 1980s he turned away from calligraphy and towards more figurative elements, ie characters.

WON is one of the few writers who graduated from an art academy . The legendary blue-bearded Fluxus artist and art professor Robin Page accepted WON ABC in his master class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . Against the trend, the young graffiti activist devoted himself to anatomical studies and nude painting. In 1995, WON's thesis at Page was his police correspondence from 1993 and 1994, which was stapled to the wall.

Projects, exhibitions, actions

While Gina Lollobrigida , Anne-Sophie Mutter and Stadtwerke München had bought or commissioned works by the artist, WON ABC reached an agreement with Deutsche Bahn for the damage it had granted in the amount of 130,000 DM to S-Bahn Trains for a payment of 20,000 DM. From then on, the convict turned to the legal segment of street art . Like virtually all networked Writer worldwide with fellow artists, he sprayte in Guatemala , Mexico and the United States , on Jamaica and Cuba , in Thailand , Cambodia , India , Sri Lanka , in North Africa and in almost all countries of Europe . WON publishes in graffiti magazines and hip-hop magazines, illustrates books, staged itself on film during political actions, but also during the soccer World Cup 2014 (Robert Weber Gallery, Munich), and sprayed ship hulls, delivery vans and a Soviet one alone or with crewmates Military helicopter - "From War to Peace" (first graffiti writer work in the Buchheim Museum of Fantasy ).

After over 40 group shows and a dozen solo shows, WON ABC has sprayed ABC as a ghost painter for 5 films and television productions, including a crime scene and the film Wholetrain . Essential parts of his work are documented in "COLOR KAMIKAZE" and ZOMBIE LOVE, colorful black books. In a fading of catalog raisonné and comic, of picture and writing, of death, lust and provocation, WON ABC portrays itself in both of its books.

In the summer of 2017, within sight of Munich Central Station, he and Loomit designed a large-scale graffiti on a 23-meter-high and 11.4-meter-wide facade of the Stadtsparkassen branch at Bayerstraße 69 , which is dedicated to the resistance fighter Georg Elser .

Monographs

WON ABC: COLOR KAMIKAZE , Artwärts / Edition Kunst der Comics, Sonneberg 1999/2014 , ISBN 3-936429-00-6

WON ABC: ZOMBIE LOVE , Publikat, Mainaschaff, 2013, ISBN 978-3-939566-12-0

Participation in book publications

Nicholas Ganz: Graffiti World. Street Art from Five Continents , Thames & Hudson, London 2005, ISBN 978-0-500-51469-6

Nicholas Ganz: Graffiti World. Street art from five continents . German by Markus Ronge, Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, 2005, ISBN 978-3896026774

Stone ( i.i. Don M. Zaza): Cubabrasil , From Here To Fame Publishing, Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-937946-54-2

Illusive 2, Contemporary Illustration And His Context , Die Gestalten, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-89955-191-5 , ISBN 978-3-89955-191-4

Ket: Graffiti Planet: The Best Graffiti from Around the World , Michael O'Mara Books, 2007, ISBN 1-84317-280-1 , ISBN 978-1-84317-280-2

Bernhard van Treeck: Hall of Fame Graffiti in Germany , Aragon, 1995, ISBN 978-3-89535-430-4

Graffiti Art , Volume 1: Deutschland, Germany, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2002, ISBN 3-89602-028-5 , ISBN 978-3-89602-028-4

Graffiti Art , Volume 2: Southern Germany and Switzerland: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2002, ISBN 3-89602-036-6 , ISBN 978-3-89602-036-9

Graffiti Art , Volume 3: Writing in Munich, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 1995, ISBN 3-89602-045-5 , ISBN 978-3-89602-045-1

Action painting, bringing art to the trains , Kristian Kutschera, Publikat, 2009, ISBN 978-3-939566-25-0

Andrea Caputo: All City Writers. The Graffiti Diaspora , Kitchen 93, 2012, ISBN 978-2-85980-016-1

Edith von Wesler-Ude and Christian Ude: Wall Art. Colored facade fantasies. Munich, Klinkhardt and Biermann, 1992, ISBN 978-3-7814-0315-4

Nicolas Yaiza: The Sourcebook of Contemporary Illustration , HarperDes, 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-135413-7

Street Art Munich. Stencils, graffiti, stickers , Hirschkaeferverlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-940839-21-3

The Carhartt Wip Archieves, Rizzoli New York, ISBN 978-0-8478-5971-9

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

1996 Art confiscated , Auenstrasse, Munich
2000 Color Kamikaze , Grober Unfug, Berlin
2000 Color Kamikaze , Popkom, Cologne
2000 Color Kamikaze , Deutz Scatehall, Cologne
2000 Color Kamikaze , Moritzbastei, Leipzig
2003 Color Kamikaze , Goethe-Institut, Hamburg
2005 WON ABC , Montana Gallery, Barcelona
2008 Color Kamikaze vs. Zombielove , V-Galerie, Basel
2009 Gallery Richter Masset, Munich
2010 True Concept Gallery, Munich
2013 Zombielove , Ruttkowski 68 Galerie, Cologne
2014 WON ABC , Galerie Robert Weber, Munich
2015 Zombielove Colourkamikaze Brothers and Sisters , OZM Artspace Gallery, Hamburg
2016 WON ABC & FRIENDS - ART FROM MUNICH UNDERGROUND , Buchheim Museum, Bernried
2016 WON ABC / ACAB - All Chicken Are Beautiful , 84 GHz - Raum für Gestaltung, Munich

Group exhibitions

1989 graffiti , artist workshop Lothringerstrasse, Munich
1989 burda award , Offenburg
1991 spring jam , Frankfurt / M.
1993 spring jam , Frankfurt / M.
1997 Museum Kallman, Munich
1998 wing station , Munich
1999 10 years abc , Forum, Munich
2000 Cosmopolite Festival , Bangnolet, Paris
2001 getting up, urban discipline , Hamburg
2001 Impossible Art , Bavarian State Parliament, Munich
2002 uamo urban art and media festival , Munich
2002 zero gravity , yoyogi park stage, Tokyo
2002 Goethe Institute, Lisbon
2003 love project , drug detoxification center come in, Goethe-Institut, Hamburg
2003 test it , Kulturpark, Wiesbaden
2005 decibelio , Madrid
2006 toy tokio decked , New York
2006 banned from television , gallery channel chapter, New York
2006 lit lounge, New York
2006 9th Havana Art Biennial , Havana
2007 color stop , Marshall Art, Zurich
2007 Carhartt Gallery, Weil am Rhein
2008 Kunst im Tresor , Munich
2008 Drawing Festival , Springman Gallery, Freiburg
2008–2010 group traveling exhibition drawing , Foss Gallery, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, London, San Francisco, Mexico City
2009 Art in the Tresor , Munich
2009 ABC exhibition , Rocket Store, Munich
2009 400ml , Maison des Metallos, Paris
2009 Basart Festival , Munich
2009 Urban Art Night , Munich
2009 Draw, Schunk Glaspalais, Heerlen
2009 Himmel, Arsch und Zwirn , Galerie Richter Masset, Munich
2009 Stroke 01 , Art Fair, Munich
2009 Art On Snow, Zell am See
2010 Marshall Art 2, Zurich
2010 Filmboard Karlsruhe eV, The Independent Creatives Clash, Karlsruhe
2010 Stroke 02 , Art Fair, Munich
2011 Art Graffiti 21 , World Cultural Heritage, Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen / Saarbrücken
2011 Busan Cultural Center, Korea
2011 Public Provocation , Carhartt Gallery, Weil am Rhein
2011 ABC Allstars, Kirsch & Co., Munich
2011 Stroke 03 , Art Fair, Berlin
2012 Stroke 04 , Art Fair, Munich
2013 Colab Gallery , Weil am Rhein
2014 Artavenue , Munich
2014 90 minutes , Galerie Robert Weber, Munich
2015 Millerntor Gallery Viva Con Agua, Hamburg
2015 A Tribute to Bluebeard, Kühlhaus Berlin, Berlin
2016 Soft Opening, Orange Garden, Shenzhen China
2016 Shenzhen Art Fair, Shenzhen China
2016 Goethe Institute, Hong Kong China
2016 WON ABC & Friends - Art from Munich's Underground , Buchheim Museum, Bernried

Movie

WON ABC and the girl under the bridge, Bayerisches Fernsehen, Schwaben & Altbayern, October 12, 2014 ( Memento from November 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Report in Capriccio, BR Fernsehen, July 21, 2016, accessed on July 21, 2016

Individual evidence

↑ June 20, 1996, 1:16 pm, dpa, Basic Service, Hamburg

↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 21, 1996, p. 40

^ Bernhard van Treeck: The large graffiti lexicon. Greatly expanded new edition. Lexikon-Imprint-Verlag, Berlin (2001), p. 411.

↑ self-disclosure. In: "WON ABC and the girl under the bridge". Bavarian television, "Schwaben & Altbayern", October 12, 2014, 6:00 pm.

↑ See also WON ABC, "zombielove by wonabc munich train part 1", YouTube , ff.

↑ June 20, 1996, 1:16 pm, dpa, Basisdienst, Hamburg, and Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 21, 1996, p. 40