Markus Lüpertz: Highways and Byways

Anti-abstract

Markus Lüpertz has never believed in the pure representational character of art, rather, as he himself says, he has always been "in search of the possible image" and thus has never felt bound to any particular style. It is precisely for this reason that he has succeeded in creating his works freely, in his own style, from a large fund of art and cultural history, creating images (symbols) that can only be associated with him and that speak of a mature and energetic freedom that serves as a model for one generation of artists or another. Younger colleagues such as Peter Doig, Tal R and Thomas Houseago have long been his fans.
The exhibition and the comprehensive book have set themselves the task of looking behind the "grand gesture", of following Lüpertz's conscious play with the role of the artist at close quarters and presenting his multifaceted, passionate and intellectual work in a broad selection of around 150 paintings and sculptures, including many early works that are still surprising today. This ranges from the first works of "dithyrambic", "anti-abstract" painting of the 1960s, close to Pop Art, to the intensive exploration of mythological and classical themes in recent decades and is impressively accompanied by an extensive section of photographic documents.
The retrospective at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn is in the continuity of the exhibitions presented over the last twenty years with the most important contemporary German artists and deliberately places Markus Lüpertz alongside Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz.

Exhibition:
Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, 09/10/2009 - 17/01/2010