Markus Lüpertz

One of the most important post-World War II artists in Germany, Markus Lüpertz helped chronicle and shape the postwar image of his country, achieving enormous success across Europe. This exhibition, organized in close collaboration with the artist himself, explores his five-decade career, from his earliest works—the perplexing ‘dithyrambs’ and provocative manipulations of German motifs, such as helmets and fields of wheat—to the more recent paintings that are redolent with mythological subject matter and art historical allusions. Lüpertz’s entire body of work is fraught with a fundamental tension between figuration and abstraction as the artist continuously challenges art-historical givens and norms of modernism. Find out more about the exhibition from the Phillips’ Collection website.

Read our interview with the artist here.

‘Markus Lüpertz‘ coincides with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History (May 24–September 10), an in-depth exploration of the artist’s revealing early work. Together, the two presentations form Lüpertz’s first major US museum retrospective.

Preview the exhibition below | See Apollo’s Picks of the Week here

Baumstamm Abwaerts Dithyrambisch (Tree Trunk Down—Dithyrambic) (1966), Markus Lüpertz. Hall Collection, Courtesy Hall Art Foundation

Motiv– dithyrambisch II (German Motif—Dithyrambic II) (1972), Markus Lüpertz. Galerie Michael Werner Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Cologne, London & New York

Der große Löffel (The Large Spoon) (1982), Markus Lüpertz. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Anne and Sid Bass Fund and gift of Agnes Gund © 2017 Markus Lüpertz / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany, Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Mann im Anzug – dithyrambisch II (Man in Suit—Dithyrambic II) (1976), Markus Lüpertz. Private collection

Ohne Titel (Untitled) (2008), Markus Lüpertz. Galerie Michael Werner Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Cologne, London & New York

Agepan I (2010), Markus Lüpertz. Private collection