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For the series entitled Lieber Maler, male mir [Dear painter,
paint for me] (1981), Martin Kippenberger hired Mr Werner,
a Berlin sign painter, to make paintings based on images supplied
by the artist. This gesture of handing over the execution of the
paintings was a riposte to the rising stars of the German art world
at the time, such as Helmut Middendorf and Reiner Fetting,who had
based their reputation on a signature style of painterly expressionism.
Four of the twelve paintings in this series are presented here.
Lieber Maler, male mir [Dear painter,
paint for me] establishes many of the concepts and preoccupations
that would reappear in Kippenberger’s work over the next twenty-five
years. Kippenberger the performer, for example, is already evident
through his (partly disguised) presence in two of the paintings:
seen from behind as a drinking partner on a bar crawl outside a
Düsseldorf hangout, and as the sophisticated tourist sitting casually
on a discarded couch on a street corner in New York. The Lieber
Maler, male mir [Dear painter, paint for me] series also introduces
many of Kippenberger’s other favourite topics (aside from himself):
the equal treatment of commodities, kitsch and culture and not least
of all the act of hiring someone else to produce his own artwork.
Even while painting with his own hand, Kippenberger
maintained his critical stance. Blass vor Neid steht er vor
deiner Tür [Pale with Envy, He Stands Outside Your Door] (1981),
for instance, comprises twenty-one individual canvases shown together
as one work, but each canvas has a separate title and there is no
consistent style. The artist pastiches early twentieth-century abstraction
or paints figurative imagery with expressionist impasto, using imagery
as diverse as a nude descending a staircase (inspired by photographer
Helmut Newton and artist Marcel Duchamp), still life studies or
a squeezed line of silicone attached to the canvas, titled Werner,
ein stolzer Wurm [Werner, A Proud Worm] – an apparent
reference to the Lieber Maler, maler mir sign painter.
Kippenberger rejects the traditional idea that an artist works to
achieve a signature style, creating instead a persona that shifts
in multiple directions at once.
Untitled (from the series Leiber Maler, male mir / Dear painter
paint for me) 1981
Private Collection
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Bitte nicht nach Hause schicken / Please Don't Send
Home 1983
Private Collection, Berlin
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Untitled (from the series Leiber Maler, male mir
/ Dear painter paint for me) 1981
Collection of Adam and Lenore Sender
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Untitled (from the series Leiber Maler, male mir
/ Dear painter paint for me) 1981
Albert Oehlen
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Martin, ab in die Ecke und schäm Dich / Martin, Into the
Corner, You Should be Ashamed of Yourself 1989
Private Collection
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Untitled (from the series Leiber Maler, male mir
/ Dear painter paint for me) 1981
Private Collection, Berlin
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