Matt Mullican

Matt Mullican’s work explores systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and signification, as well as the relationship between perception and reality—the ability to see and to represent. This focus underlies his fascination with encyclopedic models and his use of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia from 1825 as the basis for his work New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, 1825 (1991).

Drawing from a publication that took 22 years to complete, the art work reflects humanity’s drive to develop, categorize, and comprehend knowledge. Comprised of 446 large magnesium printing plates and the same number of rubbings on paper in approximately the same size, this project is one of the most important achievements in the artist’s oeuvre.

At Art Basel Qatar 2026, Galerie Thomas Schulte presents a condensed installation that mainly draws from the body of printing plates that form the essence of this impressive work. They carry the encyclopedia’s illustrations in alphabetical order. Arranged on a pedestal and on narrow shelves in rows, they establish a clear organizing principle. Within it appear illustrations, plans, and diagrams on engineering, architecture, anatomy, horticulture, and other fields, forming a condensed portrait of early 19th‑century understanding.

Matt Mullican, born 1951 in Santa Monica, California, from 1974 studied with John Baldessari at the California Institute of the Arts. Together with Jack Goldstein, David Salle, Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince, and others, he is associated to the so-called “Pictures Generation”.

Mullican has taught and lectured at Columbia University in New York, the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, the London Institute, Chelsea College of Arts, the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt am Main, and the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. He participated in documenta 7, documenta 9, and documenta 10. Since the 1970s, his work has been exhibited at museums and institutions worldwide. His works are held in numerous international public collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam).