Martin Kippenberger

Martin Kippenberger (born 1953 in Dortmund, Germany - died 1997 in Vienna) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a dizzying range of styles and media as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. He produced a rich and diverse body of work from the mid 1970s until his untimely death at the age of 44 and is now regarded as one of the most influential artists of his time.

On the island of Syros, where Kippenberger visited regularly, he initiated two of his most important large scale projects in 1993: the Museum of Modern Art Syros and the first entrance for the global underground system Metro-Net (both projects are represented in the exhibition through drawings, posters and models). For MOMAS (Museum of Modern Art Syros) Kippenberger took over an abandoned concrete structure, pronouncing it to be a museum in an ironic sleight of hand. Taking on the role of Director himself he announced that Christopher Williams (the US photographer) would be the Curator of Film and invited various friends to design signage and posters for the ‘museum’. The opening exhibition featured works by Hubert Kiecol, followed by annual exhibitions featuring works by Ulrich Strothjohann, Christopher Wool, Cosima von Bonin, Stephen Prina, Christopher Williams, Michel Majerus, Johannes Wohnseifer, Heimo Zobernig. Metro-Net (Syros), a model of which is included in the exhibition, was the start of an (entirely impossible) world wide underground system. Later stations included those built in such unlikely locations as Dawson City West (Yukon Territory, Canada) and the later construction of a subway station in Leipzig (site of the 1997 Leipzig Trade Fair), a transportable underground station for Documenta X, Kassel (1997), and a transportable ventilation shaft for Sculpture Projects in Münster (1997) all of which are also represented through models Kippenberger had fabricated.

Kippenberger draws on popular culture, art, architecture, music, politics, history and his own life – where no subject remained sacred. He was constantly reinventing himself and his art, and tirelessly controlled his image through press and marketing. He also felt that he was working in the face of a “perceived death of painting” and his art reflects his struggle with the concept that, at the turn of the millennium, it was impossible to produce anything original or authentic.