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MADRID: Kippenberger on show at Palacio de Velázquez

The first individual exhibition of the German artist Martin Kippenberger (Dortmund 1953 – Vienna 1997) at a Spanish museum displays a total of one hundred paintings, sculptures and drawings. The works are selected from two of the finest collections of the artist`s work in the world: those of publisher Benedikt Taschen and fellow-artist Albert Oehlen. Kippenberger`s art has been posthumously exhibited at several of the most important artistic events of the last few decades, including the Documenta X in Kassel, Germany; the Skulptur in Münster, Germany; the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland; and, most recently, museum shows in Karlsruhe, Germany, Vienna, Austria and Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Kippenberger had close links with Spain: he lived in Tenerife in 1984, and later in Seville and Madrid with Albert Oehlen. His one-man shows at the Leyendecker Gallery (Tenerife, 1985) and at the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery (Madrid, 1984, 1988 and 1989), and participation in group shows at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla (Qué calor II, 1989) and at the Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona (Heimweh Highway 90, 1990), have earned him a following among a growing number of young Spanish artists. This inaugural exhibition at a major museum aims to introduce the artist to a wider audience in Spain.

A member of the generation of versatile artists that emerged on to the international scene during the 1980s, Kippenberger did not limit himself to just one artistic medium. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, installations, catalogues, posters, and invitations to exhibitions were treated with equal strength of expression by the artist.

Both modern and avant-garde, Kippenberger employed the most sparkling clichés of the media, politics and publicity to question both our social reality and the history of our culture. His extraordinary sense of humor and his overwhelming capacity to give shape to thought are expressed not only through the versatility of his media, but in the titles of the pieces themselves, which he considered to be an important part of his work. Benedikt Taschen, whose family`s collection is exhibited simultaneously at the main building of the Museo Reina Sofía, has paid special attention to Martin Kippenberger`s work, collecting more than one hundred pieces. The closeness established between the two men—over years of close collaboration on books for the TASCHEN publishing house and other projects—is reflected in the quality of this collection.

The addition of works from the collection of Albert Oehlen, built primarily on personal gifts from Kippenberger or exchanges of art between the two artists, adds an even more intimate dimension to a profoundly personal exhibition.
—Marga Paz, MNCARS, Madrid