Ulrich Meister (*1947 in Schaffhausen) takes inconspicuous everyday objects—such as a bag of potatoes or a clothes hanger on a drying rack—and combines them with succinct, poetic characterizations that take them far beyond their functional contexts. It was with these kinds of works that he had his international breakthrough at Documenta IX in 1992. Through this intriguing dialogue between text and object/image, and in the way he severely reduces ordinary objects into elementary, abstract forms, the Swiss artist humorously poses the philosophical question of the nature of things. In Meister’s works, they reveal a fascinating ambiguity: are we looking at a candy egg, or is that an autonomous, oval surface made up of various colors? This publication presents selected paintings and works on paper from the past decade, and provides a comprehensive view of the works by a “classic” Conceptualist supplemented by the artist’s incisive comments on his work. Exhibition schedules: Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, October 11–November 29, 2009 | Graphische Sammlung der Schweizerischen Nationalbibliothek, Bern , October 10–December 12, 2009