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Lot Essay
The late 1980s marked a watershed in Kippenberger's artistic production. He had already staked out a wealth of representational styles, pictorial types and media in his work, creating a radical break with the tradition of painting with his intense, rapid production of canvases of deceptively trivial content. His paintings became sites of homage and irony, brazenly juxtaposing wry social commentary with shameless self-mythologising. By constantly repeating, alternating and exchanging visual motifs, he created a visual language that attributed the same importance to all ideas.
From 1988 onwards, Kippenberger made a break from painting to explore installations and projects. It was during this period that the streetlamp Santa Claus and the The Transporter of Social Boxes became memorable elements of his new repertoire.
In an extension of this exploration of new media, Kippenberger began experimenting with latex and rubber to create a new kind of 'painting.' Rubber created an instant impression of a 'second-skin,' with its obvious physical and sexual implications. The surface somehow echoes certain qualities of paint - a creamy texture transformed into solidity and the sculptural texture of thickly applied paint - while simultaneously giving the appearance of a compact sculptural art work.
The deliberate inclusion of actual rubber-coated objects which hang out of the picture underpin the three dimensionality of these works.
The surface of the rubber paintings are covered with a myriad of tiny scrawled drawings and personal motifs like the eggs and streetlamps that from here on played such a key role in his work.
That rubber and latex are naturally associated with condoms and certain sexual inclinations was of course what attracted Kippenberger to this material. Introduced into an art context, its presence acts as a pointed and irreverent critique: the pictorial object becomes the most dutifully compliant fetish in the art market place.
From 1988 onwards, Kippenberger made a break from painting to explore installations and projects. It was during this period that the streetlamp Santa Claus and the The Transporter of Social Boxes became memorable elements of his new repertoire.
In an extension of this exploration of new media, Kippenberger began experimenting with latex and rubber to create a new kind of 'painting.' Rubber created an instant impression of a 'second-skin,' with its obvious physical and sexual implications. The surface somehow echoes certain qualities of paint - a creamy texture transformed into solidity and the sculptural texture of thickly applied paint - while simultaneously giving the appearance of a compact sculptural art work.
The deliberate inclusion of actual rubber-coated objects which hang out of the picture underpin the three dimensionality of these works.
The surface of the rubber paintings are covered with a myriad of tiny scrawled drawings and personal motifs like the eggs and streetlamps that from here on played such a key role in his work.
That rubber and latex are naturally associated with condoms and certain sexual inclinations was of course what attracted Kippenberger to this material. Introduced into an art context, its presence acts as a pointed and irreverent critique: the pictorial object becomes the most dutifully compliant fetish in the art market place.