Martin Kippenberger, Wall Street, 1993

Martin Kippenberger

Wall Street, 1993

Color lithograph and offset lithograph on board

Hand signed and dated lower right front Stamped on the back with the publisher's blind stamp, artist, title, year, edition 100/E.A.

Frame included

Lithograph and offset lithograph on board
Hand signed and dated lower right front
Stamped on the back with the publisher's blind stamp, artist, title, year, edition 100/E.A.
(Note: this is designated as Epreuve D'Artiste (EA), an artist's proof aside from the regular edition of 100. It was based upon an original collage by the artist. However, it appears the only few examples of this edition that have ever come to the public market are also Artist's Proofs. (The regular edition was said to be included in the European portfolio JFK.) Scarce!
Elegantly floated and framed in a handmade wood museum frame under Optium plexiglass
Measurements:
Framed
24 inch vertical by 25.5 inches horizontal by 1.5
Artwork:
21.5 inches (vertical) by 23.5 inches (horizontal)
Provenance: The Chara Schreyer Collection (renowned philanthropist Cara Schreyer was considered on of the top art collectors in the world)
Published by the 'Politischer Club Colonia für Studien und Aktionen zum Frieden, e.V.', Cologne (for studies and peace activities)
Kippenberger's Wall Street is full of biting social commentary about American society. In addition to the brazen text references (such as "I Love Peace and Money") and the title (Wall Street), it also depicts American artist Robert Gober's famous "Hanging Man/Sleeping Man: (in the permanent collection of the Hammer Museum).
"Gober’s Hanging Man/Sleeping Man has become a touchstone of American art made during the political and social upheavals of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which included the AIDS epidemic, the culture wars, and the Los Angeles riots. The work features two images side by side, one of a sleeping white man in bed and another of a lynched black man hanging from a tree, their juxtaposition outlining the history of racial inequality in the United States. Gober came across the source images while researching hate crimes for an interview he conducted with Congressman John Conyers Jr., author of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act. The artist wrote recently about the genesis of Hanging Man/Sleeping Man, “So as I nursed friends who were dying unnaturally young […] in the face of deliberate government inaction, I was also thinking hard about American cruelty in a historical perspective. […] Hanging Man/Sleeping Man merged imagery that came intuitively out of those two big concerns.” - Matthew Marks Gallery

Martin Kippenberger Biography
(1953-1997)
Martin Kippenberger was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1953. An extremely prolific artist, Kippenberger worked in multiple mediums including painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, posters, photography and collage. Kippenberger was influenced early on by the work of Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. Through the years, he developed a diverse style that did not shy away from caustic political commentary. His harsh criticism of the artistic status quo and daily life issues became evident through provocative imagery and recurring motifs that in many cases represented the artist himself and aimed at shocking and disturbing the viewer. Kippenberger’s caustic and humorous works call into question the artist’s role within society and culture at large, as well as deeper issues of general culture and humanity. His famous Zuerst die Füsse (Feet First) from 1990, a self-mocking sculpture of a crucified frog with an egg and a beer mug, was created in response to harsh criticism that the artist received in an art publication. This unrestrained, bountiful commentary about the world around him is what makes Kippenberger’s oeuvre so powerful and compelling.

Both within his life, and since his passing, Martin Kippenberger’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions have been held in institutions such as the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn in 2019, Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna in 2016, theHamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin in 2013, the Picasso Museum in Málaga, 2011, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 2008-2009, the Tate Modern in London and the K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf in 2006, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna, the VanAbbe Museum in Eindloven and the Museum für Neue Kunst in Karlsruhe and at the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen in 2003.Martin Kippenberger died in Vienna in 1997.
-Courtesy Skarstedt