.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘Without painting, the world is only consumed, it is not perceived’ (Markus Lüpertz)
Markus Lüpertz is one of Germany’s most significant living artists, feted for his awe-inspiring and richly suggestive paintings. The monumental triptych Drei Bilder zur Erschaffung der Erde ((i) Dithyrambisch, (ii) Dithyrambisch: die Nacht, (iii) der Tag) (Three Paintings for the Creation of the Earth ((i) Dithyrambic, (ii) Dithyrambic: The Night, (iii) The Day)) (1977) represents an important turning point in Lüpertz’s work. The three canvases are each 2.5 metres wide, executed in a combination of oil and distemper, a paint historically used to decorate grand interiors. The first shows a series of seemingly abstract forms in black and white—a triangle, two quadrilaterals, an inverse comma, and a long, curling shape—with a single swipe of red paint. The second, subtitled die Nacht (The Night), depicts a similar tableau, but this time colour has entered and forms have developed. The background now shows a green field and the blue sky above, both overlaid with a scumbled grey haze; the red line has become a triangle. The final painting, der Tag (The Day), transforms the scene even further, with areas of frenetic impasto, Jackson Pollock-esque drips and brightly patterned sections with red dots. Acquired by the Crex Collection shortly after its creation, this work has been widely exhibited, appearing in institutional solo exhibitions in Bern, Eindhoven, London, Cologne, Rotterdam and Madrid.
Lüpertz emerged in West Berlin in the early 1960s, when figurative painting was at its critical nadir, and devoted himself to fortifying the form against its detractors. ‘God,’ he later told fellow artist Peter Doig, ‘is perhaps not dead, but he can be forgotten … I think paintings are facing the same fate’ (M. Lüpertz, quoted in R. Shiff, ‘A Stone Is a Hill, a Hill Is a Stone’, in Markus Lüpertz, exh. cat. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. 2017, p. 47). From 1964 to 1976 he unleashed his Dithyrambic Paintings, titled after a collection of poems by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. A dithyramb is a wild Ancient Greek choral hymn sung in honour of the god Dionysos, which Nietzsche took as his pen-name. Lüpertz’s works discarded the norms of both abstraction and figuration to create something in-between, often depicting items from popular culture or artefacts of pre-war Germany.
Drei Bilder zur Erschaffung der Erde appears to strips back painting to its essentials, offering a tongue-in-cheek creation myth of style and motif across its three-panel narrative. From 1977 to 1984 the Dithyrambic Paintings would be supplanted by the Style Paintings, which investigated ideas drawn from earlier twentieth-century abstraction; the present work presages forms that would flourish during this period. Bridging the gap between two major phases in Lüpertz’s career, it amply demonstrates the artist’s virtuosity and versatility.
Works from the Crex Art Collection
Christie’s is delighted to present an outstanding group of seven works from the prestigious Crex Art Collection. Spread across the 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale this October, these works capture the pioneering spirit of one of Europe’s finest collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art.
Begun in Zurich in the early 1970s, the Crex Collection was distinguished by its revolutionary focus on the art of its day. In 1978, it showcased its holdings in a major touring exhibition that travelled to institutions including the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Already the collection included works by artists including Robert Mangold, Sol LeWitt, Blinky Palermo and Donald Judd, as well as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Neo-Expressionist painters such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. Writing in the catalogue, Rudi Fuchs wrote that ‘It was not primarily the desire to own art, it seems, which prompted this collection; there was also the profound wish to support art, contemporary art, in a country with many collections of classic art but with only little activity in the field of really contemporary art’ (R. Fuchs, quoted in Werke aus der Sammlung Crex, Zurich 1978, p. 129).
During the early 1980s, the collection took up residence in the Hallen für neue Kunst in Schaffhausen: a former textile factory. It was one of the first exhibition spaces to make use of an industrial building in this way, and mounted a series of major shows until 2014. Its celebration of both European and American artists, and its dedication to their public display, transformed the landscape for contemporary art in Switzerland and beyond.
All acquired shortly after their creation, the present selection of works demonstrates the sharp connoisseurly vision of the Crex Collection. Highlights include a rare and unique example of Blinky Palermo’s Stoffbilder (Fabric Pictures), distinguished by its vertical rather than horizontal seam. Gerhard Richter’s Grau is one of the landmark group of Grey Paintings that the artist unveiled at the Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach in 1974. Brown Wall (1964) is one of the very first works in Robert Mangold’s seminal Walls series, while his Four Color Frame Painting #16 (1985) featured on the cover of The Paris Review in 1989. Completing the selection are works by Markus Lüpertz, Sol LeWitt and Richard Long, rounding out a tightly-curated snapshot of one of the twentieth century’s richest art-historical periods.
Markus Lüpertz is one of Germany’s most significant living artists, feted for his awe-inspiring and richly suggestive paintings. The monumental triptych Drei Bilder zur Erschaffung der Erde ((i) Dithyrambisch, (ii) Dithyrambisch: die Nacht, (iii) der Tag) (Three Paintings for the Creation of the Earth ((i) Dithyrambic, (ii) Dithyrambic: The Night, (iii) The Day)) (1977) represents an important turning point in Lüpertz’s work. The three canvases are each 2.5 metres wide, executed in a combination of oil and distemper, a paint historically used to decorate grand interiors. The first shows a series of seemingly abstract forms in black and white—a triangle, two quadrilaterals, an inverse comma, and a long, curling shape—with a single swipe of red paint. The second, subtitled die Nacht (The Night), depicts a similar tableau, but this time colour has entered and forms have developed. The background now shows a green field and the blue sky above, both overlaid with a scumbled grey haze; the red line has become a triangle. The final painting, der Tag (The Day), transforms the scene even further, with areas of frenetic impasto, Jackson Pollock-esque drips and brightly patterned sections with red dots. Acquired by the Crex Collection shortly after its creation, this work has been widely exhibited, appearing in institutional solo exhibitions in Bern, Eindhoven, London, Cologne, Rotterdam and Madrid.
Lüpertz emerged in West Berlin in the early 1960s, when figurative painting was at its critical nadir, and devoted himself to fortifying the form against its detractors. ‘God,’ he later told fellow artist Peter Doig, ‘is perhaps not dead, but he can be forgotten … I think paintings are facing the same fate’ (M. Lüpertz, quoted in R. Shiff, ‘A Stone Is a Hill, a Hill Is a Stone’, in Markus Lüpertz, exh. cat. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. 2017, p. 47). From 1964 to 1976 he unleashed his Dithyrambic Paintings, titled after a collection of poems by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. A dithyramb is a wild Ancient Greek choral hymn sung in honour of the god Dionysos, which Nietzsche took as his pen-name. Lüpertz’s works discarded the norms of both abstraction and figuration to create something in-between, often depicting items from popular culture or artefacts of pre-war Germany.
Drei Bilder zur Erschaffung der Erde appears to strips back painting to its essentials, offering a tongue-in-cheek creation myth of style and motif across its three-panel narrative. From 1977 to 1984 the Dithyrambic Paintings would be supplanted by the Style Paintings, which investigated ideas drawn from earlier twentieth-century abstraction; the present work presages forms that would flourish during this period. Bridging the gap between two major phases in Lüpertz’s career, it amply demonstrates the artist’s virtuosity and versatility.
Works from the Crex Art Collection
Christie’s is delighted to present an outstanding group of seven works from the prestigious Crex Art Collection. Spread across the 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale this October, these works capture the pioneering spirit of one of Europe’s finest collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art.
Begun in Zurich in the early 1970s, the Crex Collection was distinguished by its revolutionary focus on the art of its day. In 1978, it showcased its holdings in a major touring exhibition that travelled to institutions including the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Already the collection included works by artists including Robert Mangold, Sol LeWitt, Blinky Palermo and Donald Judd, as well as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Neo-Expressionist painters such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. Writing in the catalogue, Rudi Fuchs wrote that ‘It was not primarily the desire to own art, it seems, which prompted this collection; there was also the profound wish to support art, contemporary art, in a country with many collections of classic art but with only little activity in the field of really contemporary art’ (R. Fuchs, quoted in Werke aus der Sammlung Crex, Zurich 1978, p. 129).
During the early 1980s, the collection took up residence in the Hallen für neue Kunst in Schaffhausen: a former textile factory. It was one of the first exhibition spaces to make use of an industrial building in this way, and mounted a series of major shows until 2014. Its celebration of both European and American artists, and its dedication to their public display, transformed the landscape for contemporary art in Switzerland and beyond.
All acquired shortly after their creation, the present selection of works demonstrates the sharp connoisseurly vision of the Crex Collection. Highlights include a rare and unique example of Blinky Palermo’s Stoffbilder (Fabric Pictures), distinguished by its vertical rather than horizontal seam. Gerhard Richter’s Grau is one of the landmark group of Grey Paintings that the artist unveiled at the Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach in 1974. Brown Wall (1964) is one of the very first works in Robert Mangold’s seminal Walls series, while his Four Color Frame Painting #16 (1985) featured on the cover of The Paris Review in 1989. Completing the selection are works by Markus Lüpertz, Sol LeWitt and Richard Long, rounding out a tightly-curated snapshot of one of the twentieth century’s richest art-historical periods.