Dithyrambe – schwebend, 1964 © Markus Lüpertz, courtesy Galerie Michael Werner Berlin, Köln & New York

Born in 1941, Markus Lüpertz is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary artists in Germany. The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany is delighted to be able to build on its successful series of large-scale monographic exhibitions of German painters – among them Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz – and to present the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of Markus Lüpertz. Covering some 2000 square metres, the exhibition showcases a representative selection of approximately 150 paintings and sculptures by the artist who has always cast himself in the role of the ‘enfant terrible’ and the ‘painter prince’. Lüpertz’s oeuvre spans a period of almost fifty years, evolving from Pop Art-related ‘anti painting’ of the 1960s to the re-examination of classical painting that defines the work of the last couple of decades.

The exhibition sets out to explore Lüpertz's multifaceted oeuvre, his driving passion and intellectual rigour. It presents an artist who never felt bound to any one style, never believed in the merely representational purpose of art, an artist ceaselessly searching for what he calls the ‘potential picture’.

The exhibition traces Lüpertz’s development from the ‘dithyrambic paintings’, which first brought the artist to public attention in the mid-1960s, to the ‘German motifs’ of the early 70s, from the abstract ‘style paintings’, the dream-like ‘Zwischenraumgespenster’ (literally: ‘Interstitial Ghosts’) and the celebrated Daphne sculptures to the ‘landscape paintings’ of the 90s and, finally, to the works of the first decade of the new millennium.

Right from the start, Lüpertz applied himself not only to the fine arts but also to poetry and prose as well as music and theatre. These aspects of the artist’s work are addressed in the extensive events programme accompanying the exhibition. Workshops for children, young people and adults focus on themes brought up in the exhibition and offer participants an opportunity to engage with the works in a creative way.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 376-page catalogue with texts by renowned authors.