The major series of eight paintings on show in the exhibition Window Shopping was made in 1996 during one of the most creative phases in Martin Kippenberger’s life. That same year he also created two other series of paintings – Jacqueline: The Paintings Pablo Couldn’t Paint Anymore and The Raft of Medusa.

 

Capitain Petzel is presenting all the works in the series Window Shopping, which has never before been shown in its entirety as a group.

 

Martin Kippenberger selected his source materials for Window Shopping from Flowers, a set of fashion photographs shot by his wife Elfie Semotan for the French magazine View on Colour. Unlike the two other series which are based on black-and-white photographs, the Window Shopping series was based on colour slides, which inspired the artist to paint in an often translucent and, for him, unusually colourful manner. The idiosyncratic aesthetic of these motifs is taken to a particular extreme in one painting: Kippenberger ‘removed’ the chair from underneath one of the models (the style of the image is a homage to the rock band Leningrad Cowboys) but makes up for it by adding a third leg. The only self-portrait in this series shows Martin Kippenberger wearing a dress by Issey Miyake.

 

All these paintings were done in Martin Kippenberger’s studio in Burgenland, Austria, and were amongst the last works he completed.