Martin Kippenberger is an interesting character in the art world. Coming from money enabled him to immerse himself totally in art world culture and over-indulgence. Always pushing, always challenging, and having the ability and means to do a wide variety of work in different media and styles. At the Skarstedt Gallery exhibit in NY that just ended, they had this quote on the wall:
Undoubtedly, it did set him free. For someone so prolific in so many different ways, there's bound to be alot of hits and misses. When looking at the work in this show through the lens of the quote above, I felt that at times he was trying too hard to NOT have a style, to the detriment of the piece. Particularly in this untitled piece from 1991/92. There is some nice mark-making and rendering here, but it felt over-thought.
The piece getting most attention and featured prominently is "Down With Inflation" 1984 (he did many self-portraits with his pants down), a very David Salle-ish image (who influenced who here? or is it whom?) The other paintings are his signature mix of rendering, marks, abstract gesturing etc. He was also influenced by and challenged Picasso, or the "concept" of Picasso throughout his career. Another influence on his creative process was the 80s/90s cyclical "painting is dead" notion, or to be more specific, that there was nothing new left to paint.
There are quite a few articles online about Martin Kippenberger, and like his work or not, they're worth perusing about this influential German artist.
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