Provenance
Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; Galerie Wewerka, Berlin; Private Collection, New York; Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Catalogue Essay
Often referred to as the enfant terrible of his generation, Kippenberger’s diverse approach to painting, together with his unique artistic twists and turns has influenced the contemporary art scene and artists working today, both in content and form. Although it has been a dozen years since his untimely death, the artist’s iconoclastic attitude to painting has kept his spirit very much alive. His oeuvre has been recognised for its formal merits and artistic relevance – Kippenberger is one of the icons of his time. As a post-war child of a country coming to terms with its past, Kippenberger became best known for his large-scale canvases covered with thickly applied paint that frequently confronted his viewers with juxtapositions of motifs and ambiguous titles. His works often took on a humorous and ironic approach, trying to deal with a collective past which would otherwise overshadow the physical substance of his art at the time of its execution. Kippenberger’s paintings have quoted, mocked and comically blended traditional composition and formal arrangement with vibrant colours and unique perspective. His personal exploration as artist helped him to produce paintings influenced by photorealism and impasto-laden figuration to quirky, architecturally inspired abstraction, Euro-Pop and paintings with unconventional media.

Throughout the 1980s, Kippenberger’s artwork underwent periods of strong political reflection. Using stark imagery and appropriating symbols from everyday life, the present lot, painted in 1984, seems to depict a ballot box, a table with a small hatch at the top in which voters can cast their vote into a cubic receptacle. The painting’s desolate feel and overbearing use of the colour red, however, conjures up feelings of Communist East Germany. The sparse accommodations we witness in the painting, combined with the muted colours and pseudo-futuristic architecture of the interior scene, all suggest the way of life in Communist-occupied East Germany. As an artist living in what was then West Germany, the perspective Kippenberger took is one that enunciates the stark truth behind that period of history. Using his quintessential deadpan humour, Kippenberger playfully undermines the Communist dictatorial regime which, instead of holding free and open elections, the party repressed any political opposition instead.

Kippenberger’s refusal to adopt a specific style and medium in which to disseminate his images resulted in an extremely prolific and varied oeuvre which includes an amalgam of sculpture, paintings, works on paper, photographs, installations, prints and ephemera. For Kippenberger there were no boundaries; his artistic understanding and the execution of his ideas were as complex as his visual lexicon and each product of his enormously productive lifetime stands as evidence of his genius.

“The boundaries between art and life, public and private, were not so much traversed in Kippenberger’s enterprise as they were destabilized through his embrace of their contradictions. That instability is fundamental to his challenge to the spectator. To encounter a work by Kippenberger is to experience the discomfort and embarrassment of getting too close, of knowing more than one would wish to know or admit, of confronting something that is banal and annoying, that dismisses received notions of right or wrong. His work is not simply about getting to the truth or unearthing dirty secrets, but about uncovering the mechanisms that produce meaning and the ways in which they define the role and position of the artist.”

(A. Goldstein, ‘The Problem Perspective: Martin Kippenberger’, in exhibition catalogue, The Problem Perspective, Cambridge, 2008, p. 40)

15

Martin Kippenberger

Antikriegsmuseum – Befehl im Museum für unnötige Kriegsforschung

1984
Oil on canvas.
159.7 × 133.7 cm (62 7/8 × 52 5/8 in).

Estimate
£250,000 - 350,000 ‡

Sold for £241,250

Contemporary Art Evening

12 Feb 2010
London

1
Gregor Hildebrandt
Faith
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ♠
Sold for £49,250
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2
Leandro Erlich
Rain
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 Ω
Sold for £32,450
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3
Doug Aitken
2 disappearing points to 1
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £49,250
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4
Ugo Rondinone
Dritteraprilzweitausendundsieben
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £277,250
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5
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Green Butterfly)
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 †
Sold for £229,250
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6
John Baldessari
Puzzle (Two Views)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £193,250
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7
Banks Violette
No Title (Throne)
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
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8
Jannis Kounellis
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
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9
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡♠
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10
Elmgreen & Dragset
Powerless Structures, Fig. 255
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 Ω♠
Sold for £31,250
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11
Margherita Manzelli
Diencephale
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £97,250
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12
Cindy Sherman
Untitled (#196)
Estimate £180,000 - 250,000 ‡
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13
Andy Warhol
Knives
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £145,250
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡
Sold for £713,250
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15
Martin Kippenberger
Antikriegsmuseum – Befehl im Museum für unnötige Kriegsforschung
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £241,250
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16
Dan Colen
Untitled
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
Sold for £49,250
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17
George Condo
Father and Son
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £541,250
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18
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Cash Crop
Estimate £600,000 - 900,000 ‡
Sold for £713,250
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19
Banksy
Vandalised oil # 001
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
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20
Piero Manzoni
Achrome
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £121,250
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21
Ai Weiwei
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
Sold for £115,250
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22
Gavin Turk
Oi!
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠†
Sold for £34,850
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23
Grayson Perry
Transvestite Brides of Christ
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠†
Sold for £25,000
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24
Philippe Pasqua
Marie
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠
Sold for £85,250
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25
Wim Delvoye
Untitled (Pierre)
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £49,250
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26
Jonathan Meese
PSSST, diese geile BIENENKÖNIGINNIN schenkt sich den Melonenfischi zum Geburtstag, DU LECKERMÄULCHEN "Rendamez"
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £52,850
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27
Anselm Reyle
Untitled (für Otto Freundlich)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £70,850
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28
Peter Halley
Soul control
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000
Sold for £51,650
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29
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (707-1)
Estimate £350,000 - 550,000 ‡♠
Sold for £634,850
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30
Donald Judd
Untitled (87-29 Studer)
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £735,650
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31
Kenneth Noland
Mysteries, Amidst
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £97,250
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32
Franz Ackermann
Epicentre 1
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ♠
Sold for £75,650
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33
Gary Hume
Garden Painting #2
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
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34
Hermann Nitsch
Golden Love
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ♠†
Sold for £37,250
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35
Albert Oehlen and Jonathan Meese
The Greeting
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ♠†
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36
Franz West
Untitled (Bench)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £61,250
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37
Sergej Jensen
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠
Sold for £21,250
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38
Terence Koh
Gone, Yet Still (Untitled 2)
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000
Sold for £67,250
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39
Wolfgang Tillmans
(Untitled) Las Vegas
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡♠
Sold for £46,850
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40
Monica Bonvicini
Caged tool #2 (stone saw)
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ‡♠
Sold for £31,250
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41
Thomas Ruff
Nudes dg06
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡♠
Sold for £56,450
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42
Tobias Rehberger
Reus
Estimate £45,000 - 55,000 Ω♠
Sold for £55,250
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43
Tracey Emin
I promise to love you
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £85,250
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Contemporary Art Evening

12 Feb 2010 London

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

15

Martin Kippenberger

Antikriegsmuseum – Befehl im Museum für unnötige Kriegsforschung

Contemporary Art Evening

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12 Feb 2010
London