Provenance
Private Collection
Catalogue Essay
“You can't stand yourself next to every picture you paint and explain things. Pictures have to talk for themselves. Mostly the pictures you first set store by are not the interesting pictures. It's the imperfect pictures that go on creating some sort of tension.”
Martin Kippenberger, 1991

The present lot, Ego (Selbstporträt), 1996 captures two of Martin Kippenberger’s most iconic motifs: the egg and the artist himself. For Kippenberger the egg plays a crucial and recurring role throughout his artistic career. As a visual device, the egg has been depicted in many forms, as a natural symbol of rebirth and as a human cypher for the artist himself, creating Kippenberg’s alter-ego aptly named the “egg man.” Kippenberger has explained his infatuation with the egg by saying that “in painting you have to be on the lookout: what windfall is still left for you to paint. Justice hasn’t been done to the egg….Warhol already had the banana, So you take a form, it’s always sharp edges, a square, this and this format, the golden selection. An egg is white and flat, how can that turn into a colored picture? If you turn it around this way and that, you’ll come up with something.” (Martin Kippenberger, in D. Baumann,“Interview with Martin Kippenberger,” Martin Kippenberger, London: Tate Modern, 2006, p. 63)

In the present lot, the artist can be seen in both a state of death and resurrection. The precisely rendered figure lies lifeless beneath the egg’s yellow, yoke center, which also acts as a portal into the center of the egg. The word “EGO,” close in spelling to the word “Egg,” is executed in graphite and can be seen inscribed on the upper arched surface of the white egg shell. The egg, floating on a blue sea, resembles a space capsule returned to earth. Kippenberger is humorously and hauntingly tying the artist’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance to the egg’s traditionally symbolic power of re-birth. In the top quadrant of the composition a small blue biplane flies above, while a dashed line connects the aircraft to the interior chamber of the egg, from where the human form emerges. This “life line” connects the artist to the airborne plane, offering to pull him up from turmoil of birth and death, or to “boost his ego” and take flight up to the safety of salvation. This Selbstporträt is the very essence of Kippenberger’s genius, at once fusing the gravity and the humor of his provocative motifs into a mysterious and suggestive whole.

6

Martin Kippenberger

Ego (Selbstporträt)

1996
colored pencil, ink on paper
11 3/4 x 8 5/8 in. (30 x 22 cm)
Initialed and dated "M.K. 96" lower right.

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000

Sold for $87,500

Contact Specialist
Amanda Stoffel
Head of Evening Sale, Contemporary Art
New York
+ 1 212 940 1261

Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale, Design
New York
+ 1 212 940 1266

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

1
Franz West
Divan
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $137,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
2
Fredrik Værslev
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $68,750
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
3
Wyatt Kahn
Pair
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $137,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
5
Ed Ruscha
Cherry
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $665,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
6
Martin Kippenberger
Ego (Selbstporträt)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $87,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
7
Peter Doig
Untitled
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $293,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
8
Richard Prince
Untitled (cowboy)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,145,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
9
Marilyn Minter
Wave
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $269,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
10
Guyton\Walker
Untitled (Ketel 1 Knife Painting)
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
11
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $100,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
12
Mathias Bengtsson
“Slice” chair
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $60,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
13
Alex Hubbard
Nonstop Home
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $62,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
14
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Lucie Rie, Master Potter) 1J
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
15
Dan Rees
Artex Painting
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $75,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
16
Kenneth Noland
Chac volant
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
17
Carl Andre
32-Part Reciprocal Invention (RS 1971-20)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $100,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
18
Sturtevant
Study for Stella Bethlehem's Hospital
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $317,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
19
Sturtevant
Muybridge Plate #136, Woman Shifting Her Weight with Arms on Hip, Arms Behind Back
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $81,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
20
Haim Steinbach
ten second memos #7
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $68,750
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
21
Luc Tuymans
Exhibit #2
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $305,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
22
Marc Newson
"Extruded Table 2"
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $179,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
23
Franz West
o.T. (model)
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
24
Martin Kippenberger
Sechs
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $40,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
25
Niki de Saint Phalle
Pouf serpent bleu
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $87,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
26
Tom Wesselmann
Blue Nude Drawing (12/17/99)
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $389,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
27
Keith Haring
Pyramid
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $245,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
28
Jack Pierson
The Crippled Beggar Knew a Priceless Secret
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $106,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
29
Mark Flood
Announcement Frame
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
30
Christian Rosa
Flora or Floral
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $87,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
31
Thomas Heatherwick
"Extrusion" bench
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $112,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
32
Ryan Sullivan
September 1, 2009 - February 11, 2010
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $50,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
33
Thomas Houseago
Abstract Head I
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $81,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
34
Oscar Tuazon
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $62,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
35
Rashid Johnson
Bull
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $81,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
36
Franz West
Trog
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $81,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

Create your first list.

Provenance

Catalogue Essay

6

Martin Kippenberger

Ego (Selbstporträt)

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.