Markus Lüpertz

Following his retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 2015, and prior to his exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the ZKM | Karlsruhe honors the work of the Karlsruhe based painter Markus Lüpertz with the exhibition »Markus Lüpertz. Kunst, die im Wege steht« [Markus Lüpertz. Art which Stands in the Way]. During his time at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe (1974–1986) Lüpertz, together with fellow painters such as Georg Baselitz and Per Kirkeby, positioned Karlsruhe as an outstanding center of German painting.

The show at the ZKM reaches back to the beginnings of Lüpertz’ artistic career: »Kunst, die im Wege steht« was the name of one of his first presentations, which was held in Berlin in 1966. The ZKM sheds light on five decades in the life’s work of one of the most important German artists of the post-war generation. Lüpertz has always reinvented himself from decade to decade. With his unmistakeable brush stroke and the vehemence of his painting technique, Lüpertz has long since become a key figure in art history: of great originality, independent and above all multi-faceted.

„Landschaft“, Markus Lüpertz, 1997
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
Photo: Olaf Bergmann, Witten

„Männer ohne Frauen (Parsifal)“, Markus Lüpertz, 1994
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2016
Photo: Norbert Faehling, Düsseldorf

portrait photography "Markus Lüpertz", 2007
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Foto: Andreas Mühe