Thomas Bayrle- Chrysler Tapete

It’s a mix of pop culture, wallpaper and a whole new audience at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL). In partnership with the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Lambert Art and Culture Program announces the installation of the renowned German artist Thomas Bayrle’s Chrysler Tapete. The work, made up of 66 individual panels of wallpaper mounted directly to the wall in a grid pattern, will be on view in Terminal 2 (E Gates) now through March 17, 2019.

Bayrle’s Chrysler Tapete (1970) is one of a number of wallpaper works the artist has created since the late ’60s. A key figure in European Pop Art, Bayrle has worked in painting, sculpture, fashion, and graphic design. Bayrle’s work explores an icon of mobility. He selects a vintage Chrysler from an era of economic largesse when Detroit was the automotive capital of the world, mass producing these powerful machines that served as symbols of status and freedom, as well as emblems of postwar America.