Tim Ayres' text paintings have been a prominent feature of the Dutch art scene since the 1990s. Known for their generally monochromatic compositions and signature use of the Eurostile font, Ayres' work reflects broader cultural movements of his era. His paintings can be contextualised within the global art and media developments of the time, particularly those in his native UK. Ayres' contemporaries among the Young British Artists (YBAs) explored similarly distanced aesthetics, incorporating industrial materials and systems into their work—such as Damien Hirst's use of pharmaceutical packaging and Tracey Emin's neon signage. Parallel themes were also explored in contemporary literature, with authors like Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) and Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) interrogating society through stark, detached lenses. Within this milieu, Ayres’ art stands out for its focus on the interplay between language and form.

In recent years Ayres has turned from the hard manufactured appearance of his earlier works to a more lyrical and painterly approach. Where works, up until the first decade of this century, had associations with advertising and signage, Ayres’ recent work occupy a more poetic realm, where the surface and atmosphere of the paintings, rather than being abrupt, has considerable depth and a sense of eloquence, aligned with phrases that stem from Ayres’ own poetry.

Born in Hastings in 1965, Tim Ayres lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His ability to infuse industrial aesthetics with poetic resonance has earned him widespread acclaim. Ayres’ meticulous selection of colours and words creates works that act as poignant reflections on the human experience within an industrialized society. His art has been featured in exhibitions at institutions and galleries such as Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Galerie Markus Richter, PM/AM, PS Projectspace, and Stigter van Doesburg. His works are also held in esteemed public collections, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, SCHUNCK Heerlen, the AKZO Nobel Art Foundation, and The New York Public Library, cementing his status as a significant figure in contemporary art.

m.simons is proud to present two works made in edition by Julian Schnabel. The artist, whose work gained massive recognition in the eighties as the American answer to the German neo expressionist style of Georg Baselitz and A.R. Penck, worked together with Lococo Fine Art in St. Louis, to produce the works presented at our booth.

‍Otoño Floral (1995) stems from a body of work that was inspired by Schnabel’s then-wife Olatz López Garmendia. The print is testament to Schnabel’s unique approach to printmaking; instead of having everything printed directly, he demonstrated the printmakers how to apply the green paint on the paper with a rag. After that, the screen print was printed over in 18 colors, which finally was overlaid with strokes of clear resin.

From 1998 we have the work Allen (Cordial Love). This work stems from a series that was said to be made after Schnabel spent time on Captiva Island, an island off the coast of Florida. The composition, of deep red, bright blue and the stark white on the foreground was inspired by the white birds he saw wading in the ocean looking out from his hotel window, which was adorned with thick red curtains. Like Otoño Floral, the work was poured with resin as a final layer.

Julian Schnabel, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, is an American painter and filmmaker. He garnered worldwide attention with his “plate-paintings” in the 1980’s. While continuing his painterly career, Schnabel started directing films, such as Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and most recently the Van Gogh biopic At Eternity’s Gate, starring Willem Dafoe. Recent solo exhibitions include Julian Schnabel and Italy, Robilant + Voena, Milan, 2023, Bouquet of Mistakes, Pace Gallery, New York, 2023 and Julian Schnabel, Max Hetzler Gallery, Berlin, 2021.

We are presenting an etching by Pablo Picasso created in 1966 and printed in 1968. This work belongs to a significant period in Picasso’s printmaking after 1963. Having moved to the Côte d’Azur in the 1950s, Picasso shifted his focus from etchings to linocuts due to the lack of specialized etching equipment he had access to in Paris. However, this changed in 1963 when the Crommelynck brothers, esteemed printmakers who had collaborated with Picasso in earlier decades, relocated their workshop near him. This reunion sparked a prolific phase, during which Picasso and the brothers produced some of the artist’s finest etchings until his death in 1973.

The presented etching is part of Le Cocu Magnifique, a series of 12 etchings deeply personal to both Picasso and the Crommelynck brothers. This series illustrates the story of the same name, considered the masterpiece of Albert Crommelynck, the printmakers’ father. The set was published in a portfolio edition of 200, with 30 additional impressions printed on larger sheets and individually signed—like the one exhibited here.

Pablo Picasso (b. 1881, Málaga, Spain; d. 1973, Mougins, France), the son of academic painter José Ruiz Blasco, displayed artistic talent from an early age. He studied at the Fine Arts School in La Coruña and later at La Lonja Art Academy in Barcelona, where he frequented Els Quatre Gats, a hub for artists and intellectuals that influenced his early development. In 1901, Picasso held his first Paris exhibition at Galerie Vollard. Moving to Paris in 1904, he settled in the Bateau-Lavoir studio and built friendships with figures such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein, while his style evolved from the Blue Period to the revolutionary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907).

Picasso’s career spanned numerous artistic transformations, including Cubism, Neoclassicism, and Surrealism. He experimented with sculpture at Château de Boisgeloup in the 1930s and created masterpieces such as Guernica (1937), a powerful response to the Spanish Civil War. Following World War II, Picasso spent his later years in the south of France, where his works reflected themes of artistic legacy and personal introspection. Among the many exhibitions held during his lifetime, key retrospectives include those at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1939), and the Grand Palais, Paris (1966). Picasso passed away in 1973 and was laid to rest at Château de Vauvenargues, near Mount Saint-Victoire, immortalized in Cézanne’s paintings.

We are presenting early works on paper by René Daniëls from two private Dutch collections. This includes a series of lithographs and etchings created in edition during his academic years, as well as a large original work on paper from 1976 and a paper object, both made during the same period as his first major museum exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. Together, these works offer a unique insight into the evolution of Daniëls' artistic practice. The lithographs and etchings reflect his early influences and his search for an artistic signature, while the larger works demonstrate a growing maturity. His depiction of the Remington typewriter is a notable example of not only a coming of age , but primarily of his engagement with everyday objects and cultural references during this formative period.

René Daniëls (Eindhoven, 1950) attended the Art Academy in Den Bosch from 1972 to 1976, focusing primarily on the free department of 'Graphics.' During his time at the academy, he developed as a painter, drawing inspiration from German artists such as Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz and feeling a connection with René Magritte due to their shared sense of 'emotional detachment.' His creative process was intuitive, often beginning with a series of drawings and color sketches before moving on to painting. His subjects were frequently drawn from everyday observations, blending visual and textual elements, reflecting his admiration for artists like Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. In 1987, a stroke abruptly ended his promising career, but since 2006 he has been living in Eindhoven, creating small works once again.Daniëls first exhibited in Düsseldorf in 1977 and quickly gained recognition as 'innovative and provocative.'

During the 1980s, his work achieved international acclaim, with participation in prestigious exhibitions such as Westkunst (Cologne, 1981), Zeitgeist (Berlin, 1982), and documenta 7 (Kassel, 1982). His paintings are part of major collections, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tate Gallery London, and Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven. Following his stroke in 1987, his oeuvre and archive were entrusted to the René Daniëls Foundation, leading to significant retrospectives such as The Most Contemporary Picture Show (1998) and An Exhibition Is Always Part of a Greater Whole (Van Abbemuseum, 2012). His work remains an influential voice in contemporary art.