Beschreibung:

Martin Kippenberger Mirror for Hang-Over Bud 1990 Wood, metal, casting resin, aluminium foil. 145 × 97 × 23 cm (57 1/5 x 38 1/5 x 9 1/5 in). This work is unique from a series of 7 plus 3 artist’s proofs, each with a differently shaped lamp post.
Provenance Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne Exhibited Cologne, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Martin Kippenberger Unlangst verlangerte Originale, Cologne, 1990–91; Munich, Kunstmuseum Daxer, Martin Kippenberger 1991; Los Angeles, 1301PE Gallery, MARTIN KIPPENBERGER Forgotten Interior Design Problems in LA (El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles, 10.ªJuly–2 October 2004 (another example exhibited); Martin Kippenberger London, Tate Modern, 8 February–14 May 2006; Düsseldorf, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 10 June–10 September 2006 (another example exhibited); Brunswick, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Martin Kippenberger Multiples, 28 February–4 May 2003 (another example exhibited) Literature K. Grasslin, ed., Catalogue Raisonné, Kippenberger Multiples, Cologne, 2003, p. 92 (another from the edition illustrated); Martin Kippenberger Tate Modern, London, 2006, p. 103 (another from the edition illustrated) Catalogue Essay Martin Kippenberger's premature death in 1997, at the age of 44, brought to an end one of the most versatile, prolific and controversial careers of the post-war period. Kippenberger, whose output included paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photography, multiples, posters, prints and artist's books, had a largely autobiographical approach, exploring anything and everything, from Germany's history to the mundane and the everyday. The present lot, a wall-mounted oval mirror made of aluminium foil and framed with a bent retro-style gas lamp post, deals with what is arguably the most important and pertinent theme found Kippenberger's eclectic work: drink and alcoholism, a disease from which he suffered all his life and to which he eventually succumbed. Mirror for Hang-Over Bud is a variation on his acclaimed trademark sculpture series Street Lamp for Drunks, in which old-fashioned gas lamp posts, of the type seen on comic postcards, bend as if propping up a fall-down drunk. In these works, Kippenberger takes the notion of the bohemian painter, the self- destructive hedonist, and exaggerates it to ironic excess mocking not only himself but also his entire German culture. The reflective nature of the material used makes the work stand in as a comic analogue for the artist, yet beyond his own alcohol abuse, Mirror for Hang-Over Bud comments on the cycle of dependence and dysfunction that underlies the moralistic face of our contemporary society. Read More