"In my quest as a painter, abstraction finds its solution in figuration. The only thing that keeps painting alive is its
mystery. The viewer looks at it and searches for the solution."- Manuel Lüpertz
Markus Lüpertz (1941) is a German painter, theatre designer and sculptor. Through his work, he brings to light what our era represses.
From the 1960s onwards, his lyrical and figurative painting, referencing Nietzsche and mythology, stood out from the work of his contemporaries. Not only are his artworks figurative, but his work process itself is the opposite of the intuitive gestures of the Americans and the French: each of his large-scale works on canvas is meticulously prepared with gouache studies.
In 1969, he incorporated into his work references to both German culture and the Third Reich. This paradox between a work of classical construction and iconoclastic themes doubly repelled a public increasingly attracted to minimalism.
It was not until the Dokumenta 6 in Kassel in 1977 that this new pictorial momentum was enshrined, notably with Bacon for England and Baselitz, Lüpertz and Penck for Germany.