Martin Kippenberger

Martin Kippenberger was a German artist known for his prolific output in various styles and media, as well as his provocative public persona. Born in 1953, in Dortmund, West Germany, Kippenberger's artistic journey was marked by a diverse range of works that spanned conceptual art, installation art, and painting. 

Martin Kippenberger's Art Style

Kippenberger's art was characterized by its refusal to adhere to a specific style or medium, resulting in an eclectic body of work that included sculpture, paintings, works on paper, photographs, installations, prints, and ephemera. Throughout the 1980s, his artwork often reflected political themes.

He also believed he was creating amidst the "perceived death of painting," and his art mirrors his struggle with the notion that, as the millennium turned, producing anything original or authentic seemed impossible. 

In 1988, while spending much of his time in Seville and Madrid, Spain, Kippenberger created the first of his Laterne (Lamp) sculptures. One notable piece, "Laterne an Betrunkene" ("Street Lamp for Drunks"), gained widespread recognition after being exhibited at the 1988 Venice Biennale. 

In 1989, Kippenberger collaborated with fellow artist Jeff Koons on an issue of the art journal Parkett. 

In the final decade of his life, Kippenberger produced a collection of drawings on hotel stationery, often referred to as the "hotel drawings."

Kippenberger's work gained recognition posthumously, with retrospectives at institutions like the Tate Modern in 2006 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2008.