MARKUS LÜPERTZ

Over the course of a nearly seven-decade career, Lüpertz has created an expansive body of work, which art historian Aimée Brown Price describes as ‘replete with staunch emotional, historical, and personal content.’ Lüpertz mulls over, repeats, and recontextualizes imagery with deep cultural and personal resonance, often culling from the work of past artists, such as Poussin, Rembrandt, Goya, and Courbet. Lüpertz has said, ‘I live with artists I routinely retrieve from the recesses of history, and then they become a part of my everyday life, they are my companions, they exist for me. I deal with them as if they were alive.’

Lüpertz has been engaged with Puvis de Chavannes since 2011, connecting himself to a lineage of important, renowned artists who have been inspired by the great French master. During his lifetime, Puvis de Chavannes pushed forward modernism and influenced the work of Seurat, Gauguin, and Cézanne. Posthumously, he influenced Matisse as well as Picasso’s Blue Period. Van Gogh called him the ‘master of us all.’

The paintings by Lüpertz in the exhibition date from 2013 and chart his exchange with Puvis de Chavannes over the ensuing decade. At times, Lüpertz pays homage by incorporating objects and figures from Puvis de Chavannes’s paintings into his compositions. Other times, he simply evokes the unique, mystic classicism that permeates the works of Puvis de Chavannes. Lüpertz’s paintings are complemented by an impressive array of drawings and paintings by Puvis de Chavannes, some of which are landscapes, preparatory drawings for commissions, epic scenes, and portraiture.