Martin Kippenberger

Collection of Jochen Krüger (gift of the artist in 1975)
Sotheby's, London, 10 February 2015, Lot 41
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner 

This work is in very good condition overall. The canvas board is secured with metal fasteners to the backing board intermittently along the edges. There is evidence of pinpoint losses and discoloration in the face and left wrist, likely inherent to the artist's working method. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, the aforementioned spots fluoresce faintly but are not the result of restoration. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

At once playful and haunting, Fickn, depicts the artist’s ghostly, dismembered visage facetiously leering from the center of the composition. Executed in 1975 when the artist was 22, this irreverent work by a young, then-unknown Kippenberger preludes the unorthodoxy for which his oeuvre is known, and is demonstrative of how early in his career he had established a penchant for being a witzbold, or joker. Self-portraiture, traditionally a mode employed to celebrate the artist as genius, is here flipped on its head, mocked by Kippenberger in its presentation and mood. Despite the work’s jocular tone, the subject is treated masterfully in its form – his floating hands and head are given incredible thought, akin to the attention and detail given to a charcoal and pastel study for a Renaissance painting. 

A defining thread throughout Kippenberger’s career, spanning across paintings, works on paper, installations, multiples, photographs, books, and more, is humor and the flippant joke. “Many of [Kippenberger’s] works possess an aesthetic residue left behind by the verbal jokes that were partially recorded within the space of the image and in the appended title” (Gregory Williams, “Jokes Interrupted: Martin Kippenberger’s Receding Punchline,” Martin Kippenberger, London 2006, p. 39). Fickn is no different – its title being unmistakably close to the German ficken, and with a dedication that reads in English as “Madhouse – Address Clear – Deprived Child + Rats, Fuck Fuck Fuck – F. Jochen from Kippy with the red leather pants.” That this self-portrait was a gift and dedicated as such underscores the personal, anecdotal nature of the work; Kippenberger’s own life served equally alongside popular culture, politics, history, and current events as source material and inspiration. The artist’s spectral face and condom-covered fingers might very well have been an inside joke between himself and the original recipient of this painting. As such, Fickn is imbued with a sense of intimate personal history made poignant given his untimely death, and is an early stand out in Kippenberger’s humorous, satirizing, and irreverent oeuvre.