Lot 3 | Martin Kippenberger | Behind

One of the most influential artists of the post-war period,

Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) is a significant German artist who is known for the versatility, provocation and irony in his work. He works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, performance and literature. He is considered one of the representatives of the ‘Neue Wilden’ (New Fauves) and initially studied at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers included Rudolf Hausner and Franz Erhard Walther. In the 1970s, he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a painter, performer and curator. His work is characterised by a postmodern approach that often questions social norms and conventional art concepts. Kippenberger made a name for himself above all through his ability to combine art historical and political themes with a humorous and often self-deprecating attitude. The meaning and status of art is repeatedly called into question. Despite his early death in 1997, he is now considered one of the most influential German artists of the post-war period.

The latex and rubber pictures

Throughout his life, experimenting with new media offered the artist a wide range of possibilities to explore his artistic themes in an innovative way. The painting offered here was created in 1990 – at a time when Kippenberger began to paint his famous latex and rubber pictures in the USA. For these works, thin sheets of different densities were poured and applied to mostly larger-than-life canvases. The models for these pictures were black-and-white photos: ‘Covered by the latex layer in a format-filling manner, they appeared as if they had been covered by a filter or as a substitute for the multi-layered pictorial structures that were otherwise typical of Kippenberger. The latex coating, which was translucent and torn in some places, also gave the images a sensual and vulnerable character.’ (Hermes, Manfred “Latex- und Gummibilder 1990/1991”, in: exhib. cat. After Kippenberger, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Vienna 2003, p.146)

The large-format canvas offered here is covered with a brown latex layer that forms a fleshy, dirty, cracked surface with protruding rubber objects. Kippenberger stretches the latex over the canvas like a thin, translucent skin, so that the abstract drawing in black acrylic paint underneath remains visible. The artist even leaves some areas completely free of latex. The work clearly reflects Kippenberger's interest in different surfaces and textures. The materials used, such as latex and rubber, give the work a sensual, almost erotic dimension that evokes associations with fetishism, naked skin and sexuality. At the same time, the work shows traces of decay, thus pointing to the transience of life.

Martin Kippenberger used the latex works to question and transcend the boundaries of painting. With this material, which is closely associated with eroticism, Kippenberger skilfully provoked the art world and questioned social norms and taboos. He created a total of over sixty monochrome latex and rubber works, which illustrates the relevance of these works within his oeuvre.