The Triumph of Painting: London, Saatchi Gallery, 26 January – 3 July 2005; Leeds City Art Gallery, 25 January – 12 March 2006
Literature
The Triumph of Painting, exh. cat., The Saatchi Gallery, London, 2005, pp. 24-25 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
If Robert Rauschenberg was the American Picasso—constantly innovating and working, and also prone to churning out crud—Kippenberger is the German Rauschenberg. (Jerry Saltz, The Artist Who Did Everything, Artforum, February 2009)
Constantly asking uncomfortable questions about what it means to be German, and what it means to be an artist, Martin Kippenberger became one of the most influential artists of the postwar era. Propelled by a witty mix of humour and critique, his oeuvre includes the opening of a petrol station named after a Nazi war criminal in Brazil, the transformation of a Gerhard Richter monochrome into a coffee table, and the construction of fake subway stations around the world. Always ready to confront the limits of taste and behaviour, the German master of provocation heavily influenced subsequent generations of artists.