2x KIPPENBERGER

Till May 16, 2021 Museum Folkwang and Villa Hügel are showcasing the work of artist Martin Kippenberger. The artist’s rarely shown masterpiece The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s ‘Amerika’ is on display in Museum Folkwang’s large exhibition hall in the impressive dimensions of its “original version” from 1994. Meanwhile, Villa Hügel presents his artist books and posters in the exhibition Forgotten Interior Design Problems at Villa Hügel.

Every sentence an exclamation! Strident, demanding, challenging, absorbing and captivating; provocative, yet profoundly humanist—this is more or less how the artist Martin Kippenberger (1953–97) gets described by his erstwhile companions. The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s ‘Amerika’ is one of Martin Kippenberger’s key works. He spent several years planning, researching and producing this piece, in which he integrated works by numerous other artists, including Cosima von Bonin, Georg Herold, Tony Oursler, Jason Rhodes, Ulrich Strothjohann and Franz West. 

In this large-scale installation between sculptural hidden object and social sculpture, Kippenberger tells the story of (his) life inspired by Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Amerika. Its theme is the individual’s experience of having to make one’s way in the face of a foreign and alienating society. Kafka’s protagonist, the young Karl Roßmann, is sent by his parents to America and wanders on his own from New York through the boondocks until he comes across an advertisement for the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma: “All welcome! Anyone who wants to be an artist, step forward!” Whether his hopes for a better life are fulfilled there remains unanswered in the novel, which was never completed. 

Inspired by Kafka’s literary vision of mass simultaneous job interviews at the Clayton racecourse, Kippenberger produces a three-dimensional image that is both arena and exhibition. Using 50 table-and-chair ensembles, comprising readymades, found objects, specific fabrications, and artworks by Kippenberger and numerous artist friends, he projects a Kafkaesque communication zone onto a stylised, 20 x 23 m football field. Among designer furniture, home-made constructions and sculptural objects, high chairs and ejector seats, there is room for an equally large number of job-interview situations: the symbolic points in a life, his (artistic) life, emblematic of verbal communication and the constant struggle for recognition. Between permanent revolt and incisive social analysis, the work unfolds Kippenberger’s aesthetic cosmos as an exhibition and confronts the spectator with social questions about the mechanisms of career success, integration, repression and power.

Forgotten Interior Design Problems at Villa Hügel showcases around 120 books and 100 posters created by Martin Kippenberger between 1979 and 1997. The title is borrowed from an exhibition by Kippenberger, which was shown at Villa Merkel in Esslingen in 1996. Kippenberger’s artist books are on display in the historical library of Villa Hügel. For the duration of the exhibition, Kippenberger's experimental, highly distinct and sometimes provocative books stand in striking contrast to the classic book collection of the impressive library of the Krupp family. The poster exhibition in the former living quarters focuses mostly on different forms of self-representation by the artist, as well as his position within the network of his artist friends. The books and posters on display belong to Museum Folkwang’s collection, which has been considerably expanded in recent years thanks to the generous support of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. 

Martin Kippenberger was one of the most important artists of the late 20th century. The wide range of artistic media and materials he used—from painting and sculpture, drawing, photography and performance to posters and books—is as impressive as the biting irony and analytical incisiveness often present in his works, which made him a close observer of social and political phenomena.

Martin Kippenberger grew up in Essen, where his father worked as a mine manager and his mother as a doctor. The family regularly visited Museum Folkwang and Villa Hügel. This art-loving household was an early source of inspiration for Kippenberger’s later artistic work, which contains numerous allusions and hidden references to his childhood and adolescence in Essen and the Ruhr region.

The exhibition at Museum Folkwang is supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.

The exhibition at Villa Hügel is funded by Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.

Please book your time slot-tickets in advance (mandatory):
For Museum Fokwang here / For Villa Hügel here

A catalogue published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König will be available in April.

Virtual tour: 2x KIPPENBERGER. The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s ‘Amerika’

Press contact
Yvonne Daenekamp, T +49 201 8845 160 /yvonne.daenekamp@museum-folkwang.essen.de