Markus Lüpertz

Markus Lüpertz, born in 1941 in Bohemia/Czech Republic, is one of the most important representatives of Neo-Expressionist painting of the 1960s and is today one of the best-known German artists of the present. In the course of his youth Lüpertz devoted himself to various training courses, all of which he did not complete for various reasons - he was dismissed from his apprenticeship as a painter of wine bottle labels due to a lack of talent, the master of commercial graphics soon dismissed him again for financial reasons. Lüpertz attends the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf for one semester, whereby his rebellious manner gets into various difficulties, which ultimately leads to his expulsion. Lüpertz subsequently devoted himself primarily to painting as a freelance artist, and since the 1980s he has also created figurative sculptures. The painted figures radiate a fascinating physicality with their expressive vehemence and their broken-fragmented posture. Lüpertz' paintings, some of which are large-format, are characterised by strong gestures to which the artist lends tension with a painterly feeling and intensive empathy. In comparison to his contemporaries, Lüpertz always behaves thematically in a certain non-simultaneity: the artist prefers classical objects to subjects, while the path generally leads to abstraction. His art often pursues a critical examination of current events - as a vehement critic of the situation in Germany in the post-war period, he repeatedly picks up on unpleasant topics that should rather belong to the past unnoticed by the general public.
From 1988 to 2009 Markus Lüpertz was rector of the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He is active as a painter, sculptor, publicist, graphic artist and author. He lives and works in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf and Florence. His works have been shown in the most important exhibition halls in Germany and Europe, for example at the documenta or the Albertina in Vienna. His works are represented in the collections of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Kunsthalle Bern, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.