“4 Angels” | lithograph on wove paper with deckle edge | limited edition
With his symbols, stick figures and signs, the artist A.R. Penck created his very own world of images. After his expatriation from the former GDR in 1980, where his paintings were repeatedly confiscated or even destroyed, he was at the forefront of the “Neue Wilde”, an art movement of the new expressionism. Together with other fellow artists, he also performed in various music bands.
A.R. Penck is represented in the Koenigshof Collection with his lithograph “4 Engel”. He attached great importance to printmaking in his work. Even though his painting always uses symbolic abbreviations, the reference to figurative representations is evident. The angels are part of a special edition of J. Berg’s and U. Gumbert’s “Four Short Operas”, for which CDs were also published – an example of the preferred combination of visual art and music in A. R. Penck’s work.
Eva Mueller | Art Consultant
Curator of the Koenigshof Collection
VITA A.R. PENCK (short form)
Born in Dresden in 1939 | 1954 artists’ group “Erst Phalanx Nedserd” | 1956 rejected by GDR universities | occasional work as a labourer or craftsman and draftsman | 1966 pseudonym as A.R. Penck after the ice age researcher Albrecht Penck | 1968 first exhibitions in West Germany | 1969 confiscation of his paintings by the GDR Ministry for State Security | 1976 collaboration with Jörg Immendorf | 1979 studio burglary, works, and documents destroyed | 1980 expatriated | 1988 professor of painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy | 2017 died in Zurich, Switzerland
AWARDS, EXHIBITIONS, WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (selection)
1975 Wilhelm Grohmann Prize of the Akademie der Künste Berlin-West | 1981 Rembrandt Prize of the Goethe Foundation Basel, Switzerland | 1985 Aachen Art Prize
1968 “Deutsche Avantgarde 3”, Galerie Hake Cologne | 1968 “Erstes Training mit Standart”, Galerie Michale Werner, Cologne | 1971 “Zeichen der Verständigung”, Kunstmuseum Krefeld | 1984 ” Von hier aus – Zwei Monate neue deutsche Kunst in Düsseldorf” | 1977 documenta 6, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel | 1981 Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland | 1982 documenta 7 | 1984 Venice Biennale, Italy | 1988 Nationalgalerie Berlin | 1996 Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City | 1997 Hiroshima City Museum, Japan | 2006 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea | 2011 Artis Causa, Thessaloniki, Greece | 2020 Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Netherlands
Bavarian State Painting Collection | CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China | Centre Pompidou, Paris, France | Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy | Essl Museum Klosterneuburg, Austria | Frac Sud, Marseille, France | Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, England | Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland | Kunstmuseum Bonn | Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark | Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary | MAGASIN, Stockholm, Sweden | MARTa Herford | MUMOK Vienna, Austria | Museum Folkwang, Essen | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | Collection of Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany | Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Holland | Städel Museum Frankfurt | Van Abbemusem Eindhoven | ZKM Karlsruhe