Jonathan Meese Discusses Anti-Ideology Art Philosophy in ArtReview Interview

In a March 2018 interview with ArtReview, Berlin- and Hamburg-based artist Jonathan Meese articulated his philosophy of art as an anti-ideological force. Meese, known for works incorporating historical figures like Wagner, Hitler, Napoleon, Nero, and Nietzsche, creates paintings, sculptures, performances, videos, and writings that critique power structures through crude figuration and German military iconography. He describes his project as a "deadpan farce" that reappropriates oppressive propaganda to drain its power, aiming for a "dictatorship of art" where art itself rules as an evolutionary leader. Meese was tried and acquitted in 2013 for giving a Nazi salute during a performance in Germany, an illegal act he framed as art triumphing. He collaborates with artists like Daniel Richter and Tal R, citing German traditions from Expressionists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde to New Fauves. Meese refuses to fly to exhibitions, preferring to let his art travel while he works in the studio, often assisted by his 87-year-old mother, with whom he debates ideology's inherent nature. He wears an all-black Adidas uniform as a protective "Art-Uniform" and capitalizes "Art" to signify its supremacy over political systems, religion, and ideology, which he views as adult constructs absent in children and nature. Meese rejects comparisons to Joseph Beuys's political turn, emphasizing art's role as a "total game" for "baby animals" who are radical dreamers denying reality.