Markus Lüpertz, “Tent 33/210 – Dithyrambic”, 1965, Distemper on canvas, 59 x 59 inches

Michael Werner Gallery 4 East 77th Street New York City, NY 10021 USA (city map) Send E-mail tel +1 (0)212 988 16 23 www.michaelwerner.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARKUS LÜPERTZ: TENTS - EARLY DITHYRAMBS
29 MARCH through 19 MAY 2007

Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition "Markus Lüpertz: Tents - Early Dithyrambs" from 29 March to 19 May 2007. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to view key early works by this important artist.

In 1963 Markus Lüpertz embarked on the series of "dithyrambic" paintings, his first independent and mature works. The ancient term "dithyramb" refers to ecstatic songs and rituals honoring the god Dionysus and was used by Markus Lüpertz to describe a working state of excited improvisation and spontaneous invention during period when he was concerned with locating new aesthetic forms. Markus Lüpertz's earliest "dithyrambic" pictures were pictorial inventions of sculptural forms in planar space that lie somewhere between abstract and representational imagery: forms evocative of architecture or figuration, though not always overtly so. The artist later augmented his practice of inventing forms by seeking fresh inspiration and new motifs from a variety of unlikely and banal sources, and in 1965 began the series of paintings depicting tents and tent-like forms the artist called "diamonds".

Taken from illustrations in a department store catalogue, the given motif of the tent offered Markus Lüpertz a way to further develop his ideas of abstraction and pictorial invention through theme and variation. Not having to invent a new motif, the artist was free to explore line, form and color while movingly fluidly between pictorial representation and abstract invention. The resulting objects, writes Siegrfied Gohr, are "…both real and unreal…the point was the poetical effect of the painting, beyond questions of the motif." Here the adjective "dithyrambic" comes to refer not only to the artist's state of heightened creativity but also to a mood of "poetic reverberation" lent to a seemingly banal source.

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, from 10am until 6pm. "Markus Lüpertz: Tents - Early Dithyrambs" is on view through 19 May 2007. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue featuring an essay by Siegfried Gohr. For more information please contact the gallery.

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