NILS NORMAN

While I was at art school, I came across a catalogue for “Wahrheit ist Arbeit” (Truth is work), a show featuring Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, and Werner Büttner. It was more collaborative project than traditional catalogue. The paintings they made together parodied the Neue Wilde as well as artists like Richter and Immendorff. Their almost slapstick neo-expressionism was quite different from what was going on in the ’80s generally—and this attempt to use humor as a critical tool informed my own work. Coming from St. Martin’s, which had a very traditional painting-based curriculum, I found their approach particularly intriguing. In fact, that book inspired me to move to Cologne, in 1989.

—As told to Margaret Sundell