The Sick Brain of Martin Kippenberger

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Martin Kippenberger is mostly known for his statues of crucified frogs. One of them has prompted protests from the pope during an exhibition last year. Some of them are occasionally sold in auctions.

He was also a very prolific painter, showing with derision a wide range of topics (too many?) of contemporary life, sometimes in very large sizes.

On February 12, Phillips de Pury in London sells an unusual but revealing work, entitled "Portrait of Paul Schreber", a mixed technique on canvas 2 x 2.40 m painted in 1994. It is a brain viewed from above, some of the protrusions are highlighted with color to represent a kind of ugly face.

Schreber was a personality of the nineteenth century who published an autobiography to describe his own nervous breakdown. This case was of great interest for the founders of psychoanalysis. Kippenberger expresses here both attraction and repulsion of madness.

The artist was not sick of the brain but of the liver. This hard drinker died of cancer in 1997 at the age of 44. Phillips de Pury sells his works often. They estimate this one at £ 400 K.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The result at 430 K £ including premium rewarded the disturbing nature of this work. This was the best result of this evening sale.