Markus Lüpertz (born 25 April 1941) is a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and writer. He also publishes a magazine, and plays
jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...
. He is one of the best-known German contemporary artists. His subjects are characterized by suggestive power and archaic monumentality. Lüpertz insists on capturing the object of representation with an archetypal statement of his existence. His art work is associated to
neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of Late modernism, late modernist or early-Postmodern art, postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called ''Transavantgarde'', ''Junge Wilde'' or ''Neue Wild ...
. Known for his eccentricity, German press has stylized him as a "painter prince".
Life and artistic career
Lüpertz was born in Reichenberg in the
Reichsgau Sudetenland
The Reichsgau Sudetenland was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. It comprised the northern part of the ''Sudetenland'' territory, which was annexed from Czechoslovakia according to the 30 September 1938 Munich Agreement. ...
of
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
-occupied
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
(now
Liberec
Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...
in the Czech Republic) in 1941. His family moved to
Rheydt in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
, in
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, when he was seven years old, in 1948. He was dismissed for an alleged lack of talent from an early apprenticeship as a painter of wine bottle labels. His second teacher, a commercial artist, went bankrupt. Lüpertz studied at the
Werkkunstschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for the ...
of
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...
, from 1956 to 1961, with Laurens Goosens. During his studies, he worked also in mining underground, road construction, and spent a semester at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His short presence at the Academy ended as a "huge fiasco", and a "physical conflict that escalated a lot" led to his
exmatriculation. "As an unloved, as an outcast, I have been expelled from this house," Lüpertz remembered in retrospect, this "embarrassing defeat" of his student days.
Since 1961 he worked in Düsseldorf as a freelance artist. Lüpertz first sought the adventure and joined the
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...
, but he deserted shortly after, before he could be sent to
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
. In 1962, he moved to
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
, avoiding military service, where he began his actual painting career. There he was one of the founders, together with Karl Horst Hödicke, Hans-Jürgen Diehl, Wolfgang Petrick, Peter Sorge and eleven other artists, of the gallery Grossgörschen, in 1964. In 1969, Kalus Gallwitz, director of the Baden-Baden Kunsthalle, presented works by Lüpertz in his talent show. In 1970, Lüpertz received the Villa Romana Prize and spent a year in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, as part of the associated scholarship. He was awarded the German Association of Critics Prize in 1974. Lüpertz organized the same year the 1st Biennale of
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. In 1975, he published his first poetry book, ''9 × 9''.
After working as a guest lecturer in 1973, he accepted the professorship of painting at the
Academy of Fine Arts in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
in 1974. He published the poetry collection "And I, I play ..." in 1981. In 1983 he took over a professorship at the Summer Academy in
Salzburg
Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. He spent a time in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1984. He remained a professor in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
until 1986.
In 1986, he received a professorship at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and was appointed rector in 1988. He led one of the leading German art academies for a long tenure of more than 20 years. He filled vacancies at the academy with internationally known artists, including
A. R. Penck,
Jannis Kounellis
Jannis Kounellis (; 23 March 1936 – 16 February 2017) was a Greek Italian artist based in Rome. A key figure associated with Arte Povera, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.
Life and work
Kounellis was born in Piraeus, Greece i ...
,
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel (born 13 November 1952) is a German conceptual artist. She has made drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and installations, and has worked in mixed media. From 1985, she made pictures using knitting-machines. She is a pro ...
,
Jörg Immendorff,
Albert Oehlen,
Peter Doig
Peter Doig ( ; born 17 April 1959) is a painter of Scottish nationality who has lived and worked between Trinidad, Canada, the USA, Germany and Britain. He settled in Trinidad with his family between 2002 and 2021, when he moved back to London. ...
and
Tony Cragg
Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977.
Early life and training
Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...
. At the Venice Biennale in 1993, he was invited to the German Pavilion, together with
Georg Baselitz
Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...
and
Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan h ...
. He was replaced as rector by
Tony Cragg
Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977.
Early life and training
Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...
, in June 2009.
Lüpertz was elected to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2009. Since 2014 he is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts at the Alte Spinnerei. Lüpertz planned to start a private art academy in the former villa of banker Henckel am Pfingstberg in
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
, but decided to cancel the project.
In 2011, Lüpertz exhibited a new body of work entitled ''Pastoral Thoughts'' at the Michael Werner gallery in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. According to the brochure, these are "New works by the celebrated and controversial German artist
hich
Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...
explore themes of history and abstraction in paintings derived from landscape motifs." The exhibition was labeled: "is the artist's first major New York showing since 2005," and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Lüpertz lives and works in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
,
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
. He has his studio in
Teltow. He is married and has five children. Lüpertz converted to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
.
Painting
Lüpertz created his first paintings around 1960. In contrast to the prevailing abstract tendencies of his time, the young Lüpertz designed simple representational motifs in an expressive manner. His early works often show a powerful imagery with monumental representations of forms. In his painting he combined contradictory motifs. As a palpable ambiguity, he incorporated the doubts of modernity into tradition into his pictorial constructions and sought the way out of the then overpowering abstraction. In 1962 he developed his "dithyrambic painting" in Berlin and began the Mickey Mouse series and a year later the Donald Duck series.
In 1964, he held his exhibition of the "Dithyrambic Paintings", term taken from
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
. In this paintings, Lüpertz combined the opposites of objectivity and abstraction into a synthesis. Lüpertz sees the picturesque universe shaped by a continuous rhythm to which everything is subordinated. He published his "Dithyrambic Manifesto", in 1966, followed by a second manifesto titled "The Grace of the Twentieth Century", in 1968.
From 1969 to 1977, he painted predominantly German motifs, namely symbolic objects such as steel helmets, shovels, flags or monumental antlers in large formats. The paintings were executed in earthy colors and thematized the unmanaged German national pathos, where unfortunate memories of the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
era were evoked. This phase was followed by another one, from 1977 to 1984, based on the abstract painting of the 1950s. His paintings from this period are almost completely free from motives, the play with surface and volume-forming forms and the richness of the picturesque surface are used fruitfully.
[Siegfried Gohr (Hrsg.): Markus Lüpertz. Hirmer, Munich, 1997, S. 18.]
These tendencies ended in favor of a new objectivity and spatiality. From 1985 to 1990, Lüpertz devoted himself to reinterpret, among others, the works of masters like
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French Landscape art, landscape and Portraitist, portrait painter as well as a printmaking, printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in ...
and
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythologic ...
. According to art historian Siegfried Gohr: "When Lüpertz invokes Poussin, it means finding new rhythms for the image body, or, as Poussin said, the tableau, which can only then be interpreted in terms of content. Not realism, but a strict artificiality arises from this strategy, a painting parallel to nature and at one's own time ".
Among his best known works are the series of pictures ''Men without women - Parsifal'', created from 1993 to 1997. In this extensive series, Lüpertz adhered to a single theme: the frontal male face, often depicted as crying. Parsifal refers to the hero of the last opera of
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
, the female temptation and salvation in a man's world. At the same time, the theme can be associated with the loneliness of the painter in the studio.
From 1997, he started doing landscape paintings, which contrast with his previous work and are characterized by a fleeting composition. In 1999, he created the cycle ''Vanitas'', and the following year, the cycle ''Vesper''. In 2001 Lüpertz created the mural ''The Six Virtues'' for the foyer of the new Federal Chancellery in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. On the monochrome paintings nothing is visible except colors. Lüpertz main source of inspiration was the ''Iconologia'' by
Cesare Ripa
Cesare Ripa (, Perugia – Rome) was an Italian Renaissance scholar and iconography, iconographer.
Life
Little is known about his life. The scant biographical information that exists derives from his one very successful work: the ''Iconologia ...
, since he drew on ancient iconological concepts that assigned the colors of the ruler's virtues.
Sculpture

Lüpertz has cultivated sculpture and designed stage sets since 1980. Among his most famous works are the figure of Apollo for a niche in the
Alte Oper
Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destr ...
in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, from 1989, the bridge sculpture ''The Ugly Scares the Beauty'' (1990), in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
, ''The Fallen Warrior'', a three meters long bronze sculpture of a fallen warrior with helmet and shield, inspired by an ancient Greek sculpture, in the
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
Kantstrasse, an ensemble of three sculptures for the park of
Schloss Bensberg (2000), ''The Philosopher'', a bronze nude sculpture created for the foyer of the new Berlin Chancellery, in 2001, and a sculpture of Apollo, inaugurated in the Elisabethenplatz in
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...
, in 2009.
Musical and literary work
In addition to his work as a painter and sculptor, Lüpertz is also a
Free Jazz
Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
musician, including the piano. Occasionally he gives concerts together with professional musicians. He also created and publishes the art and literary magazine ''
Frau und Hund'', since 2003, in which he publishes his own poetry and prose texts. Two editions of the magazine have appeared in other languages (''Signora e cane'', in Italian, and ''Femme et Chien'', in French).
Art market
The highest selling painting by the artist in the art market was ''Arrangement für eine Mütze I- dithyrambisch (Arrangement for a Cap I- dithyrambic)'' (1973), sold by £300,000 (c. $ US$394,163) at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, on 22 October 2020.
His highest selling sculpture was ''Pietrasanta Bronzen: Frau mit Spiegel. Der Schauspieler. Mann mit blauem Ball. Der Gärtner. Odaliske. Akt mit Spielzeug'' (1993-1995), a six pieces work in bronze, sold at
Lempertz
Lempertz (officially Kunsthaus Lempertz KG) is a German auction house which emerged from a bookstore and art gallery founded 1845 in Bonn, Germany. It is entirely owned and controlled by the Lempertz family and headquartered in Cologne, Germany.
...
, a German auction house from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
, by €293,000 ($399,182), in 2014.
New World Record for Markus Lüpertz, Artnet News, 5 June 2014
/ref>
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Markus Lüpertz biography at Artnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lupertz, Markus
1941 births
Living people
20th-century German painters
German male painters
21st-century German painters
20th-century German sculptors
20th-century German male artists
German male sculptors
21st-century German sculptors
21st-century German male artists
Writers from Liberec
German people of German Bohemian descent
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
German contemporary artists
German Roman Catholics
Academic staff of the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
Artists from Liberec
Sudeten German people
Neo-expressionist artists