ON VIEW 20

ON VIEW 20

Lars Schwander– Portrait of Martin Kippenberger

It was a great pleasure to open Stalke Gallery’s spring exhibition On View 20, which focused on the American conceptual artist William Anastasi. The exhibition was curated by Sam Jedig, who had worked with William Anastasi since his first exhibition at Stalke in 1988.

William Anastasi – In Print 1988–2015

The exhibition focused on Anastasi’s prints, created in collaboration with the Danish printer Niels Borch Jensen and Edition Copenhagen. Many of Anastasi’s graphic works “wrote over” and reinterpreted several of the artist’s earlier works, resulting in new, independent pieces. Over the past decades, Anastasi had gained increasing international recognition and was regarded as one of the pioneers of early conceptual art. Prominent museums now included his works in their collections, among them Esbjerg Art Museum, the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark.

In connection with the exhibition, a comprehensive catalogue was published by Stalke Edition, featuring texts by Charles Stuckey, Niels Borch Jensen, Rasmus Urwald, and Thomas McEvilley.

The exhibition also presented new paintings by the Finnish artist Tiina Elina Nurminen. Tiina Elina Nurminen had previously been featured in the exhibition Stop for a Momentat ARKEN in 2003 and had since exhibited on several occasions at Stalke Gallery. Her paintings explored concepts such as movement, space, and emotion within an abstract universe.

Lars Schwander presented a larger series of portraits of Martin Kippenberger, created in 1996. The series was exhibited together for the first time in the gallery’s project space, Stalke Cube. Schwander was a leading figure in European photography and had worked extensively with curation, communication, and exhibition organization. His works were represented in collections such as Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Rosphoto

(St. Petersburg), Louis Vuitton (Paris), The Royal Library (Copenhagen), Musée de la Photographie (Charleroi), the Museum of Photographic Art (Odense), and the Obrist Collection

.

In addition, selected works by the following artists were presented:

Torben Ebbesen, Dove Bradshaw, Nikolaj Recke, Morten Tillitz, Cordy Ryman, Aske Sigurd Kraul, Olafur Eliasson, Gunnar Ørn, Marianne Hesselbjerg, Albert Mertz, William Anthony, Henrik Pryds Beck, and Thorbjørn Lausten.

William Anastasi, In Prints, Stalke Galleri, 2023, installation view, front Gallery

Tiina Elina Nurminen, On View 20, Center Gallery, Stalke Galleri, 2023.

Lars Schwander, Martin Kippenberger serie, Stalke Cube Space, 2023.

MARTIN KIPPENBERGER / LARS SCHWANDER

Martin Kippenberger (1953–1997) was undoubtedly one of the greatest German painters of the 20th century. On October 25, 1996, I was scheduled to photograph him at Galleri Mikael Andersen, Bredgade, Copenhagen. The day before, four of us went out to eat at L’Education Nationale, a French restaurant in what is popularly called “Pisserenden.” It got very late. We sat drinking red wine until the restaurant closed. Before that, Kippenberger had shown some of his tricks, including flipping his tongue… When we stood on the street late at night, I asked if we still had an appointment the following day. He replied that it would be no problem.

The next day, exactly at 10:00 AM as agreed, he arrived, opening the door and walking in, dressed in his Burberry suit with a matching cap and scarf, and a long black coat. With the apparently obligatory cigarette in one hand, he exuded a rare authority. I asked him to stand in front of a white wall as if it were in a studio. We also captured a single photo in front of his paintings, which were still stored along one wall. The subjects were primarily tables and chairs, so I later asked Kippenberger to sit in a chair, both against the white wall (again) and in front of the paintings that were already hung. Finally, we did a series where he alternately stood in front of his paintings and sat in the chair I had placed in front of his images. This way, Kippenberger was reflected in a chair in front of his painted chairs.

One of his long-time collaborators, who also helped set up the major retrospective Kippenberger exhibition “Sehr Gut / Very Good” at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, in 2013, said:

"How long before Martin died were these taken? He looks very haunted. Starkly real, strong, and sad—all at the same time. I knew him and worked with him when he was 25 and just starting his career as a serious artist. He was so handsome and alive, but even then, he was a slave to alcohol. He was a driven artist, a generous human being. Very lovable and inspiring."

From the time of the shoot in late October, it was barely five months before Kippenberger passed away during a stay in Vienna. These are thus some of the last recordings of him. It’s strange to look back at these images today. Kippenberger stands there, in his artistic zenith, at just 43 years old. At once young and old.

In total, there are three rolls of film, each consisting of twelve images. Two are black-and-white, and one is color film. In total, there are 36 photographs, all of which are now owned by Galleri Stalke Collection. This is also the first time they have been presented in their entirety. Some images have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, and Galleri Mikael Andersen back in 2021.

Stalke Galleri — On View 20, Cube Space Outside, 2023.

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