Martin Kippenberger at Zwirner & Wirth - New York

Martin Kippenberger, one of Germany's more controversial bad-boy artists, died in 1997 at the age of 43. He left behind a prodigious output comprising paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, prints and artist's books. His last American museum show was in 1991, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This recent gallery exhibition, showing important works from across Kippenberger's career, went quite a way toward confirming him as an artist of broad, if unruly, talent. Kippenberger mythologized himself in his work, in a way that was both guileless and manipulative. Seeing himself as the center of the art world enabled him to take on the persona of an Everyman. His awkward interactions with that world reflected the idiosyncrasies of a malcontent and at the same time pointed out the often-rigid boundaries and codes of behavior that characterize the supposedly freewheeling milieu.

Kippenberger availed himself of a certain rough humor; he was the star of the theatrical version of his life. His deeply funny self-portrait sculpture from 1989, Martin, Go in the Comer, and Shame on You, mocks the criticism he received from the art establishment. In a full-length statue, the artist portrays himself dressed in a white shirt, suspenders, black pants and suede shoes, his back to the viewer; his bronze head is turned toward the corner and his hands are behind his back. Despite the outward show of submission, Kippenberger seems unrepentant. Untitled (Lamp), 1992, a sculpture intended for Documenta IX, consists of a streetlamp bent over, its light suspended just above the ground. Taken as a symbol of the artist, the sculpture reveals him as dysfunctional, literally bent out of shape. Kippenberger was not invited to the exhibition, despite his preparations.

Kippenberger was also an excellent painter. His War Evil II, a large oil on canvas from 1995, is a powerful work. Two birds sit on a branch in the upper regions of the canvas, colored orange-brown; the bottom half is occupied by a series of black, red and green shapes, with some smearing of gray over all, that might represent a ship at sea. Although it is hard to read, the work conveys an intense expressiveness. In the 1984 oil Capri at Night, the artist has painted a sedan in red, white and gray marks that might represent pedestrians and buildings above it. The painting's vibrancy and immediacy make it memorable. Kippenberger, even at his most refractory, is an artist of energy, sharp insight, great skill and considerable integrity.

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