Martin Kippenberger

Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne 

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2001

Mönchengladbach, Städtisches Museum Abteitag, Der Eiermann und seine Ausleger, 1997 

New York, Skarstedt Gallery, Martin Kippenberger: Eggman II, 2011, pp. 30-33 and 36-37, illustrated in colour

Angelika Taschen, Ed., Kippenberger, Cologne 2003, p. 202, no. 196, illustrated in colour 

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate although the cabinet is slightly darker in the original. Conditions: This work is in very good condition and full working order. There is some wear in places to the cabinet and plinths all of which is in keeping with the overall aesthetic.
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Created one year before the artist’s premature death and a thematic homage to the egg, Untitled (Showcase with Egg Sculptures) is part of a wider series of Eierbilder or Egg Pictures created the same year. Presented in the prodigious exhibition Der Eiermann und seine Ausleger at the Städtisches Museum Abteitag in Mönchengladbach, the works featured captured the dense conceptual possibilities of the egg as symbol and metaphor. Despite having gained significant international success with numerous acclaimed exhibitions worldwide, Kippenberger had not had an institutional solo exhibition in Germany since 1986. The striking display of the artist’s newest works at the Museum Abteitag, however, finally earned him the deserved critical acclaim in Germany that he had long been receiving elsewhere. Driving to the exhibition opening in Mönchengladbach in a small cart broadcasting the old German folksong “klingelingelingeling hier kommt der Eierman!” Kippenberger assumed the alter-ego of the Eggman. Inaugurating the key works of his mature career and the central motif of the egg with this elaborate performance, characteristic of his wry humour and exuberant personality, Kippenberger introduced the Rhineland to what would come to be considered the seminal works of his career and the last exhibition of his lifetime.

A vessel for the detritus of modern living Untitled (Showcase with Egg Sculptures) continues the artist’s appropriation of mundane everyday objects and recycles visual elements from his earlier hotel drawings. Encased in a large vitrine like ancient relics, the museum-like display of the three eggs amplifies the idiosyncratic aesthetic of the sculpture and draws reference to the most influential artist of post-war Germany, Joseph Beuys. A distinct visual quotation of Beuys’ display cases, in which the artist subverted the traditional role of seemingly quotidian objects to highlight their social significance, the work pays tribute to this defining figure of German art, and explores contemporary concepts of appropriation.

Within the visual confines of Untitled (Showcase with Egg Sculptures) Kippenberger, “the master of layered innuendo”, has amalgamated broad cultural references and dense metaphorical meaning, to create a work of universal resonance and idiosyncratic artistic wit (Doris Krystof and Jessica Morgan, Martin Kippenberger, London 2006, p. 11).