As one of the most innovative artists in the second half of the twentieth century, André Thomkins was above all an artist’s artist; in spite of his great significance, he scarcely became known to a widespread audience. An examination of both the multifaceted oeuvre of this Swiss artist working with images, objects and words and the art-historical reception of his creations clearly shows that, with the beginning of the 1970s, experts focused on his graphic oeuvre. Thomkins’ experimental practices, on the other hand, receded into the background. An inclusive view of all his works, however, reveals that his formal and technical experiments went hand-in-hand with a contentual, ontological profundity. Transformation and combination, networks and interaction, constant flow and permanent interconnection were at the heart of his artistic orientation and had a formative influence on his personal lifestyle. He sought out and cultivated contact, exchange and, in some cases, also collaboration with the artists of his era, including such figures as Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, George Brecht and Robert Filliou.

Excerpt from the André Thomkins catalog, 2023
written by Dagmar Streckel