The Germans are everywhere at Frieze Masters! Strolling booths yesterday, I started counting the number of Gerhard Richter paintings on view, but quickly lost count. Same for Sigmar Polkes, which were running a close second—maybe not surprising since his retrospective, which appeared at MoMA earlier this year, just opened at Tate Modern. And coming in at number three? My bet is that it’s work by one of their indefatigable, always entertaining artistic descendants, Martin Kippenberger, who had pieces at no less than four stands. A quick guide, if you want to do your own little survey:
– Gisela Capitain/Metro Pictures (B7): This is the most comprehensive Kippenberger display at the fair, pairing a variety of his works—a few paintings, one of his delicious wall-mounted lamppost pieces, a handful uproarious posters, and a sculpture—with paintings by René Daniëls. A pleasure.
– David Zwirner (F11): This richly stocked secondary booth has a 1986 Kippenberger titled We Don’t Have a Problem With Neon Aportion. It’s a punchy one, and pictured at left.
– Skarstedt (F1): Skarstedt, which recently did a show of the artist’s “Raft of the Medusa” works in New York, has a handsome painting from one year later than Zwirner’s, a scrappy abstraction called 15.Preis (1987).
– Dickinson (C4): A few nice surprises here! On the outside of its booth, the London gallery had a funky 1989 lightbox called Bi ba be loona, Cola ist nicht Bluna hanging right next to the drawing that Kippenberger enlarged up to make that work. Inside, there was a small trove of drawings from the series that he made on hotel stationery from around the world.
No doubt there are more Kippenbergers tucked away in the fair. If you come across others, please do share them in the comments section below.