Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective

by Ann Goldstein (Compiler)

Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) is a special case in art. His life and works were inextricably linked in a remarkable practice that centered on the role of the artist within both the culture and the system of art. With his larger-than-life persona, Kippenberger cast himself as impresario, entertainer, curator, bohemian, collector, architect, and publisher. He collected art, set up clothing companies and nightclubs, and ran art-world scams. Nothing was sacred to this iconoclast except the right to satisfy his enormous appetite for life, appropriate anything for his art, and create continual chaos around himself. This book, which accompanies the first major U.S. retrospective exhibition of Kippenberger's work, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, documents Kippenberger's extraordinary twenty-year career with works in many media - paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, photographs, collaborations with other artists, posters, postcards, books, and music. Among the major works reproduced are key selections from the I.N.P. Bilder (Is Not Embarrassing Pictures) and No Problem paintings of the 1980s; the landmark 1987 exhibition of sculpture "Peter. Die russische Stellung" ("Peter. The Russian Position"); self-portraits in a variety of media; Laterne an Betrunkene (Street Lamp for Drunks); the Raft of the Medusa cycle of the 1990s; the renowned Hotel drawings; and the monumental installation, The Happy End of Franz Kafka's "Amerika." Accompanying the artworks is an essay by exhibition curator Ann Goldstein; newly commissioned texts by art historian Pamela Lee, Kippenberger scholar Diedrich Diederichsen, and curator Ann Temkin; reprinted excerpts from a 1991 interview with Kippenberger by artist Jutta Koether; and an illustrated exhibition history, chronology, and bibliography. Martin The Problem Perspective offers readers the most comprehensive view yet of this legendary artist's body of work.

Genres: Art

370 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2008

About the author

Ann Goldstein has been working as a translator from Italian for over fifteen years. Her first published translation appeared in The New Yorker in 1992: Aldo Buzzi's essay "Checkov in Sondrio." Just one year later, her translation of Aldo Buzzi's 1994 collection Journey to the Land of Flies and Other Travels received the PEN Renato Poggioli Prize. She has also translated works by Roberto Calasso, Serena Vitale, Alessandro Baricco, and Pope John Paul II. In 2007 alone, she translated Alessandro Piperno's The Worst Intentions (Europa Ed.), and Antonio Monda's Do You Believe? (Vintage); and she edited and wrote an introduction for A Tranquil Star (Norton), a collection of seventeen stories by Primo Levi--nine of which she translated--that had never appeared in English before. During her Guggenheim term, she will be working on a translation of the complete works of Primo Levi.

Ms. Goldstein earned a B.A. in literature from Bennington College in 1971, and then studied comparative philology at University College, London, before joining the staff of The New Yorker as a proofreader and copyeditor in 1974. She was promoted to editor and head of the copy department in 1987, positions she has held ever since. In that capacity, she has worked with John Updike, Roger Angell, Janet Malcolm, Adam Gopnik, and Simon Schama, among other noted writers. In addition to her Guggenheim Fellowship, she has been a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy twice (1995, 2006) and a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome twice (1993-94, 2002).

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most outstanding book published on Kippenberger's life/work. Many materials/images in here that have only been available in books that have become rare and expensive. One of the most valuable books I own.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of my artist friends don't understand my fascination and admiration for Kippenberger-- I happened to see this show both in the West Coast and East Coast-MOCA and MOMA two places kippenberger created his myth-the west Coast had the advantage of showing the entire installation of the happy end of franz kafka which was unbelievable-brilliant! This book is very thorough-and the illustrations show so many great drawings, and paintings, sculpture, and the ton of photographs kippenberger took of himself for posters, show cards and books. This is a great general but very well researched over view of so much of his output-if you are a kippy fan this book should be in your art book collection.