Martin Kippenberger Art Book - Biography & Works Collection | Perfect for Art Lovers, Students & Collectors - Home Decor, Gift Idea & Study Resource

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Martin Kippenberger2015



197019901990386131987(1991Lord Jim Loge1980··The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s “Amerika”1994Fred the frog1988199090―If you don’t know me by now

Text by Minoru Shimizu (English and Japanese)

Official Press Release:

Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Martin Kippenberger. This exhibition, made possible in collaboration with the Estate of Martin Kippenberger and Galerie Gisela Capitain, will be the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Japan. Kippenberger was one of the most influential artists to come out of postwar Germany and he played a pivotal role in establishing the postmodernism aesthetic between the late 1970s and 1990s. He was an artist, actor, dancer, heavy drinker, novelist, musician, and traveller. His unique and wild lifestyle was matched by his prolific and varied output, which spanned multiple media including paintings, sculptures, collages, posters, photographs, performances, installations, multiples, and books. The core of the current exhibition will be a large-scale installation, which was produced in the 1990s and comprises 38 multiples, six posters, one painting, and three hotel drawings. The exhibition promises to be a unique opportunity to see Kippenberger’s works, which have thus far not been adequately presented in Japan. Kippenberger used bewilderment and confusion as a strategy to draw in his audience and frequently questioned the social function of art works. For example, in 1987, he purchased a Grey Painting from Gerhard Richter, which he proceeded to use as a table top for a coffee table, which he presented as his work “Model Interconti”. His aim, to effectively destroy the market value of Richter’s costly painting, shocked viewers. As the most reasonably priced contemporary art works on the market, multiples, which are also featured in this exhibition, were an important medium for Kippenberger, who publicly expressed scepticism for the art market by treating unique works and commercially produced multiples equally. His poster works were an apposite medium for expressing his humour, social critique, and provocative and suggestive images in clever combinations. The painting in our show “Untitled (from the series Black Rubber Paintings)”, is part of an experimental series from 1991: The surfaces of the canvases were covered with latex and are reflecting an almost sculptural idea of painting. The work features iconic images from Kippenberger’s oeuvre such as the famous drunken street lamp, the symbol of the Lord Jim Loge also used for his subway entrances, a chair from the large scale installation “The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s ‘Amerika’”(1994) and the image of a fried egg with a thumb from the painting series “Fred the Frog” (1988). The black rubber painting, which can also be read as the artists own version of a black monochrome painting, perfectly depicts Kippenberger’s universe of ideas and his extremely wide-ranging reference system. The multiples in the show offer many entry points into Kippenberger’s work and add different viewing possibilities, both on Kippenberger’s own work but also regarding his relationships to other artists and the art world in general: There are references to Günther Förg, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Barnett Newman and Robert Ryman or to concepts like Minimalism or political ideas of the time. They show his idiosyncratic way of working, his connectedness with the contemporary art world and colleagues, his sense of humour, his critique of society and hybris, comments on political attitudes, his mix of high and low culture, the idea of repetition in his work. In addition many works include references to himself as a person. There is a story to tell about every work and that story explains the work of the artist and his way of thinking. During the entire show, which is in part a repetition of a historical show from the year 1990, Kippenberger decided that a Simply Red was the accompanying soundtrack for every visitor: the song “If you don’t know me by now” – greets each visitor, luring him into the space to look at the work and then hopefully, possibly, everybody will leave the show with a better understanding of the Kippenberger universe.