Michael Krebber

Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin

Private Collection, Europe

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original. Condition: Please refer to the department for a professional condition report.
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Elegantly restrained and lyrically composed, Michael Krebber’s Untitled is a standout example of the artist’s voracious and multifaceted output. With a career that spans more than four decades, Krebber's art rightly gained the admiration of his contemporaries, Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger. Indeed, hardly anyone knows the recent history of German contemporary art better than Krebber. Having studied with German painter Markus Lüpertz before becoming the assistant of Georg Baselitz – even moving into the artist’s infamous castle – Krebber then notably became the assistant and close confidant of Martin Kippenberger. Intense and enduring, Krebber describes this extraordinary friendship as “a double bind… dependency in every way – artistically and financially… but it was also a friendship” (Martin Krebber cited in: Daniel Birnbaum, ‘Man Without Qualities: Secret Sharer’, Artforum, October 2005, online). Entirely immersed and absorbed in this fascinating artistic moment, Krebber is nothing short of a Cologne phenomenon.

Teaming with hazy soft washes, tentative gestures and endlessly intriguing marks and motifs, Untitled bursts with the extraordinary energy and ingenuity that has continued to fuel Krebber’s incredible practice. The short sharp jabs of paint speak to the work of Sigmar Polke whilst the wafer thin brushstrokes are immediately redolent of that of Albert Oehlen. Krebber’s painting practice is also deeply conceptual and rooted in the realms of anti-art, indeed, his now legendary exhibition at the Isabella Kacprzak Gallery (1989) consisted of nothing more than an empty room and some photographs of a fictitious exhibition. Attesting to the artist’s recent renewed critical appreciation, other examples of his work are held in numerous prestigious international collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; and Museum Brandhorst, Munich.