.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Around 1970 Lüpertz embarked on a new series in which he examined and revalued themes that were heavily burdened with the legacy of German ideology and history. These monumental pictures depict military imagery: soldiers, helmets, landscapes recalling battlefields, all subjects that were considered taboo at the time. His work can be read as dealing not only with issues of abstraction and figuration, but history and remembrance.
Painted in 1973, Zyklop I, II, III form a monumental triptych of three faceless soldiers in military uniform and helmet. The brutal and aggressive application of paint forces the viewer to transcend ordinary perception to notice paint on a purely material level, while at the same time, by repeating the motif three times and making it massive, Lüpertz forces the viewer back to confront the image itself. The figures' heads are not visible, covered by a form that visually seems to be both a massive military helmet and a painter's palette. By having the helmet and the palette conflate, Lüpertz evokes not only modern military history, but the history of painting as well, and the respective roles of the soldier and artist.
The theme of the soldier was popular with Neue Sachlichkeit artists, the generation that fought in the First World War. The horrors of war are depicted in works of this period by Kirchner, Heckel, Beckmann, Dix and Grosz - shattering images of crippled and mutilated soldiers shown rejected by society. However, Lüpertz's images evoke not only these German precedents, but Fascist propaganda glorifying military force as well. The scale, force and confrontation of Lüpertz's works imply violence. Like the famous poster by Ludwig Hohlwein, Und Du?, 1929, Lüpertz reproduces the faceless soldier. However whereas the soldier represented anonymous military aggression in the Hohlwein, the officer in Lüpertz's work appears almost tragic, constrained by his uniform, blinded by his helmet, weighed down by his position.
Fig. 1 Ludwig Hohlwein, Und Du?, 1929
Painted in 1973, Zyklop I, II, III form a monumental triptych of three faceless soldiers in military uniform and helmet. The brutal and aggressive application of paint forces the viewer to transcend ordinary perception to notice paint on a purely material level, while at the same time, by repeating the motif three times and making it massive, Lüpertz forces the viewer back to confront the image itself. The figures' heads are not visible, covered by a form that visually seems to be both a massive military helmet and a painter's palette. By having the helmet and the palette conflate, Lüpertz evokes not only modern military history, but the history of painting as well, and the respective roles of the soldier and artist.
The theme of the soldier was popular with Neue Sachlichkeit artists, the generation that fought in the First World War. The horrors of war are depicted in works of this period by Kirchner, Heckel, Beckmann, Dix and Grosz - shattering images of crippled and mutilated soldiers shown rejected by society. However, Lüpertz's images evoke not only these German precedents, but Fascist propaganda glorifying military force as well. The scale, force and confrontation of Lüpertz's works imply violence. Like the famous poster by Ludwig Hohlwein, Und Du?, 1929, Lüpertz reproduces the faceless soldier. However whereas the soldier represented anonymous military aggression in the Hohlwein, the officer in Lüpertz's work appears almost tragic, constrained by his uniform, blinded by his helmet, weighed down by his position.
Fig. 1 Ludwig Hohlwein, Und Du?, 1929