Thomas Müller (born 1959, Germany) has focused almost exclusively on drawing since the mid-1990s, demonstrating the breadth of creative possibilities within the medium through his wide-ranging compositions. Working with pencil, ink, ballpoint pen, crayon, and paint on paper, he makes abstract drawings that vary from spare to maximalist. For some of his largest compositions, he uses only a ballpoint pen, working line-by-line to build up forms that sweep across the page and resemble the undulating, striated surfaces of rock formations. By contrast, some of his smaller works feature only a handful of marks that float delicately in the centre of an otherwise blank page.
Describing his practice, Müller has said: “Attraction and repulsion, breathing in and breathing out, vigour and laxity are poles between which my work oscillates. (...) My work generates its energy and vitality precisely from these polarities and tensions.”