MARTIN KIPPENBERGER: SEHR GUT | VERY GOOD
23 FEBRUARY - 18 AUGUST 2013
In 2013 Martin Kippenberger would have celebrated his 60th birthday - that is, had he not died in 1997 due to an excessive life. At several places in the building, the Hamburger Bahnhof currently exhibits an artist whose work and life cannot be separated from one another - a painter, an actor, a writer, a musician, a drunkard, a dancer, a traveller, a charmer, an enfant terrible and self-producer - in short, an “exhibitionist” as he called himself and an artist who today is considered one of the most significant of his generation. The permeation of personality and oeuvre, as well as the incredible variety of his artistic production, is now presented in its entire spectrum. “Martin Kippenberger: sehr gut | very good” however does not intend to be a retrospective, but rather an approximation of both the private and public persona of the artist Martin Kippenberger. Even if Kippenberger only spent a few years in West-Berlin (1978-1981), it was here that he developed important topics of his artistic cosmos. Hence he announced that “Berlin needed a new coat of paint” and made a name for himself as a short-term co-owner of the legendary punk club SO36 and operator of the “Büro Kippenberger.” Besides performing as a musician in the band “Luxus” or respectively as an actor, he also once created for Claudia Skoda a floor collage as a catwalk for her Kreuzberg studio that he made from 1,300 photos from the fashion designer‘s environment. For the duration of the exhibition, the collage is shown in the historic passage in the East Wing. With the series “Uno di voi, un tedesco in Firenze” (1976-1977) he had still performed as a painter using oil and canvas, but in Berlin he traded large parts of this series for free food and drinks at the legendary Paris Bar (which he also then painted). With his series “Lieber Maler, Male mir” (1981) he shortly thereafter subverted the cliché of the genius painter by ordering large-format images from a movie poster painter. In spite of public indignations that Kippenberger repeatedly caused, with works such as “Martin, ab in die Ecke und schäm dich” (1989) he managed to distil something positive.
 
A multiple installation - often referred to as “white paintings” (1991) and so far rarely shown - can be seen on the main building’s first floor: eleven white canvases that are embedded into the wall, virtually becoming one with it. Upon approaching the work one recognises glossy children‘s handwriting on the images, which quasi certifies Kippenberger’s work by grading it throughout with the mark “very good” - of course on request of the artist. Yet, “Martin Kippenberger: sehr gut | very good” does not only refer to the white paintings but also to a magazine Kippenberger published in 1978 called “sehr gut. very good.”
 
In the midst of all this irony however the exhibition also reveals a human being who needed to combat his sickness through art. Kippenberger painted himself in the pose of the shipwrecked from Théodore Géricaults famous painting from 1819: bloated, aged, exhausted. Self-portrayal is in fact an essential part of his work and life, which is why there is an abundance of photographs and in particular self-portraits. A selection of photographs allows for a differentiated perspective of Kippenberger - thirty years after he left Berlin: “Art is always only looked at in retrospect anyway… I would say that the period is twenty years. […] Whatever the people will or will not continue to talk about me is what matters. Whether I spread good fun or not. And so what I'm working on is that the people will be able to say: Kippenberger was good fun!”
 
Curated by Udo Kittelmann and Britta Schmitz, Co-Curator: Miriam Halwani

Anish Kapoor is one of the most important of the world’s contemporary artists. Since his first sculptures – simple forms with paint pigments spread out on the floor – Kapoor has developed a multi-faceted oeuvre using various materials, such as stone, steel, glass, wax, PVC skins and high-tech material. In his objects, sculptures and installations the boundaries between painting and sculpture become blurred. For his first major exhibition in Berlin he will use the whole of the ground floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, including the magnificent atrium. Some of the works will have been specially designed for this venue. The show, comprising about 70 works, will provide a survey of the abstract poetic work of this winner of the Turner Prize from 1982 to the present.
 
Born in Mumbai in 1954, Kapoor is among the most prominent representatives of British sculpture. He came to London in 1973 to study sculpture at the Hornsey College of Art and has lived and worked there ever since. At that time Hornsey was the most radical of London’s art colleges and the one most open to the Marcuse-inspired revolutions that swept the student movements. In 1990 he represented the UK at the Venice Biennale where he was awarded the coveted prize “Premio 2000” by the International Jury. In 1991 he received the prestigious Turner Prize. Since the early 1980s his works – many of which have won further awards – have been exhibited worldwide.
 
What is characteristic of Kapoor’s work is his unlimited ability to constantly reinvent the language of art, both in its monumental and in its intimate dimensions, and the many dualities which come to light in his search for aesthetic effects both in perfection and in chaos. His creations are made of natural and artificial materials. They serve Kapoor’s endlessly inventive and suggestive pursuit of abstract metaphor. Some of the works to be shown in the exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau are described briefly below:
The use of paint pigments has been a regular feature of Kapoor’s work since the 1970s. In “White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers” (1982), for example, he draws inspiration from the land of his birth: India. Objects reminiscent of the decorative elements in Indian temples or Buddhist stupas have been covered with thick layers of gleaming pigment powder in red, yellow and black.
 
In the late 1980s Kapoor worked with stone. “Wound” is a product of this period: Kapoor has cut a gash in the inner faces of two stones and filled it with deep red pigment. The gash continues along the front of the wall where the stones come together to form a V. The deep red colour emphasizes the organic element. The title of the work calls up numerous images before our inner eye and points to an interpretation.
 
In Anish Kapoor’s universe there are many black holes. One of the highlights of documenta IX was Kapoor’s room “Descent into Limbo” (1992): In the middle of a walk-in cube a seemingly bottomless black hole opened up in the floor and literally dragged the viewer into itself. A new version of this work will be found in the Martin-Gropius-Bau.
 
Kapoor’s concave or convex mirror structures stand the world on its head. In the reflection of the brightly polished surfaces the viewer sees a distorted vision of himself and the room. The gleaming high-grade steel mirrors causes the natural order of time and space to fall apart, and the viewer is left to fend for himself. In “Vertigo” (2008) several perspectives appear simultaneously in one reflection. The visitor sees himself in close-up as though through a spectacle lens and at the same time from a great distance. What all his mirror objects have in common is a play with perception. Despite their minimalism they never seem to be hermetically sealed, but open and accessible. They invite the viewer to enter a modern wonderland, thus making him an actor.
 
When he comes to Kapoor’s wax works the persevering viewer will find himself observing a perpetually changing object. Because of its malleability wax lends itself to designing spontaneous ideas for sculptures and has long been used in sculpture for modelling designs, making impressions, and casting moulds. Kapoor divests the material of its pallor and places it at the centre of his sculptural idea.
 
Kapoor does not fit into any ready-made category. It is typical of him that each newly created work redefines the relationship between painting, sculpture and architecture. For the atrium of the exhibition gallery, which is built in Neorenaissance style, Kapoor is designing a new sculpture whose form and materiality will only be revealed at the opening. It will be in the tradition of El Lissitzky, the great Russian Constructivist, who, together with Malevich, worked among other things on the famous production of the opera “Victory over the Sun”. In “Proun” (the Russian abbreviation of “Project for the Affirmation of the New”) El Lissitzky invented a new world which he himself described as a “way station on the road from painting to architecture”.

Horst Antes is one of the most internationally significant figurative artists of recent decades. Like few other German artists he has contributed to the global artistic debate. He has been represented at the Documenta in Kassel on three occasions. He has also exhibited at the Biennales in Venice and Sao Paolo. His works have also been seen in all the major European, American and Japanese museums and collections.
 
The exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will focus on his painting work, covering all his creative phases over a period of five decades – from casual beginnings circa 1958 to the spectacularly large and austere in-house images of the last phase. The show in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will be the first major one-man exhibition of the paintings in nearly two decades. About 90 pictures will be on display. They will be supplemented by other works closely bound up with his painting oeuvre: two sculptures, four “votive” images, and some books and portfolios designed by Horst Antes.
 
Not only the many loans from abroad and pictures from the artist’s own collection that are being shown publicly for the first time will make this exhibition unique. It will also be remarkable for highlighting the great contribution made by Horst Antes to the history of 20th century art and leave an indelible mark in the visitor’s memory.
 
The spacious entry hall will introduce all the motifs of Horst Antes’ painting – preparing the eye for what is to come. Every iconographical theme is conspicuously presented, prior to being elaborated in the subsequent halls. We begin with the brightly coloured action painting of the late 1950s. This is followed by the red pictures (“The Red Majas”) of enormous intensity and archaic eroticism. A larger category of works is ushered in with the emergence of the “Kopffüssler” (lit. “Head-Footer”), that artificial figure that was about to make a triumphal entry into the whole world of art. Another hall brings together pictures that are directly connected with the artist’s adopted country, Italy: whether through the Masters of the Renaissance, the gentle landscape between Florence and Siena, or the clear light of Tuscany. The next thematic category is the religiosity of the artist who – as a collector – has always shown a passionate interest in the magic origins of religions. For the first time two sets of motifs – one associated with Christianity (the tools of the crucifixion, stigmata) and the other with the beliefs and rituals of the Hopi Indians (rain, serpent, tablets) – are brought together. The final halls document the turning point in the work of Horst Antes who – after the Falkland War – turned his back on the figure he had invented in favour of new themes – windows, boats, date pictures – and especially the house. In the final hall eight very large, mostly black “house” pictures make an overwhelming impression with their austere idiom and massive presence. The “house” figure has replaced the human figure and stands for the whole of humanity and its thoughts.
 
The exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will offer an opportunity to rediscover and re-evaluate the complex oeuvre of Horst Antes.
 
Biography
 
Horst Antes was born in Heppenheim in 1936 and has lived in Sicellino, Karlsruhe and Berlin. His teacher at the Academy in Karlsruhe was H.A.P. Grieshaber. In the abstraction versus figuration debate of the late 1950s Horst Antes was quick to combine action colour compositions with figurative elements. The 1960s saw the emergence of the “Kopffüssler” figure, since when his work has enjoyed worldwide renown. In 1982, under the influence of the Falkland War, the first stencil figures appeared. In 1987 Horst Antes began the series of “window” and “house” pictures. At the same time he produced numerous large-scale sculptures that were set up in public spaces in Düsseldorf, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Vienna and Mainz.
 
Antes took part in Documenta III (1964), IV (1968) and VI (1977) and had one-man exhibitions in New York’s Guggenheim Museum (1984), in the Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2002), in the Kunsthalle, Würth (2006), and in various Japanese museums. He won the UNESCO Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale (1966), the Marzotto-Europe Prize for Painting (1968), the Grand Prix of the Sao Paolo Biennale (1991), and the Culture Prize of the State of Hesse (1991).
 
A catalogue will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung König.