He is an artist who is sorely missed. Martin Kippenberger – the artist of the century (not to mention wisecracker, rascal, and joker) – would have turned 70 on February 25. The eighties and nineties were his playgrounds; he also worked and performed outside museums, galleries, and studios. Looking back on his life, which ended in 1997 at only 44, it seems as if he had never slept: But sleep must also have seemed negligible to someone who worked, drew, and painted tirelessly. Along the way, he helped run SO36 in Kreuzberg, played in a band, acted, and was part owner of a restaurant in Los Angeles and owner of a gas station in Brazil. In Berlin, he could be found in Paris Bar with blood sausage and wine. The galleries Max Hetzler and Capitain Petze l both dedicated exhibitions to him on his milestone birthday, commemorating various phases of his work. While Capitain Petzel will present his room-sized installation “Heavy Burschi,” which caused a sensation at the Cologne Kunstverein in 1991, starting next Friday, Hetzler will ring in the birthday celebration tomorrow. Photographs by Wilhelm Schürmann and Andrea Stappert frame Kippenberger’s works here: they show him in the studio, on the street, and in everyday life.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Simon Vogel / Credit: Martin Kippenberger, heute denken – morgen fertig, 1983, Privatsammlung & Courtesy Estate of Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
Max Hetzler, Goethestr.2/3, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Heute denken – morgen fertig, Works from private collections from the 80s and 90s. Photographs by Wilhelm Schürmann and Andrea Stappert, 13.01.–25.02.2023 Tue–Sat 11–18h
Capitain Petzel, Karl-Marx-Allee 45, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map
Martin Kippenberger Heavy Burschi, 21.01.–18.02.2023 Tue–Sat 11–18h
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