#A. R. Penck

[thunderstruck9]

A.R. Penck (German, 1939-2017), Rock I, 1984. Dispersion on canvas, 160 x 130 cm.

[stoneantler]

A. R. Penck (German, 1939-2017), Nightvision, 1982. Woodcut.

[4eternal-life]

A.R. Penck  (German, 1939 -2017)

Konstruktion in den Raum hinein 2002 Acrylic on canvas. 90 x 70 cm

Auction 1187  / © Lempertz

[100-art]

Famous A. R. Penck art collection. HD poster prints

[thunderstruck9]

A.R. Penck (German, 1939-2017), An evening with Pam Partizan, 1989. Acrylic on canvas, 285 x 285 cm.

A.R. Penck - An evening with Pam Partizan

[creativespark]

A.R. Penck (German, 1939-2017), Ohne Titel

[disease]

"UNTITLED" // 2007 YOSHITOMO NARA 奈良 美智 [coloured pencil on coloured paper | 16 ½ x 11 5/8"]

With her short cropped hair, dark green dress and rebellious energy, the girl in Untitled (2007) emits the youthful defiance that has come to typify works by Yoshitomo Nara. [...]

"He is widely celebrated for his paintings and coloured pencil drawings of juvenile, cartoonish characters with large gazing eyes and endearing personalities. They inhabit imagined and insouciant paper worlds, brandish absurd objects and props—knives, sprouts, cigarettes, and electric guitars—and express a wide range of capricious, childlike emotion. Stern and somewhat sulky, our subject hovers in indeterminate space. She stands upon a Japanese flag with her small feet positioned perfectly over its crimson sun. Emblazoned around her miniature figure are the words ‘Up Yours!’, and, ‘All the Nations!’. As an advocate of peace, questions of nationhood, conflict and world politics weave through Nara’s art in such pithy phrases and symbols. Exhibited at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga—the first show of the artist’s work in Spain in 2007-2008—the present work was one of twenty coloured pencil drawings hung along the final wall of the gallery.

Born in 1959 in Japan’s rural Aomori Prefecture, Nara’s youth was marked by his country’s rapid post-war economic development and an influx of Western pop-culture, from Disney animation to punk and rock and roll. The artist expresses heartfelt nostalgia for the retro media—record-sleeves and comic books—that offered escapism from an otherwise solitary childhood. ‘Of course if you think back to the ’70s,’ he says, ‘information moved very differently. There was no Internet obviously and even the release date of albums in Japan could be delayed as much as six months … I would just sit there, listen to the music, look at the art on the cover and I think I really developed my imagination through that’ (N. Hegert, ‘Interview with Yoshitomo Nara,’ Artslant, 18 September 2010). This sensitivity to the worn, tactile quality of objects is triumphant in his art today and distinguishes him from the likes of Takashi Murakami and his Superflat movement. Untitled bears the enlivening traces of artist’s hand, present in the rough ‘outside-the-line’ scribbles that imply the girl’s messy hair. Bracketed with Nara’s unfiltered, handwritten text, the image feels distinctly personal, like a secret note exchanged between friends.

As early as his time at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Nara began to draw onto envelopes, cardboard, and scraps of found paper. He continued these explorations at the prestigious Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where, under the tutorship of German Neo-Expressionist painter A. R. Penck, he was encouraged to work fluidly between painting and drawing. ‘I [loved] to draw every day and the scrawled sketches, never shown to anybody, started piling up’, Nara has said. ‘Like journal entries reflecting the events of each day, they sometimes intersected [with] memories from the past. My little everyday world became a trigger for the imagination, and I learned to develop and capture the imagery that arose’ (Y. Nara, ‘Nobody’s Fool’, in N. Miyamura and S. Suzuki (eds.), Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works, Volume 1: Paintings, Sculptures, Editions, Photographs 1984-2010, San Francisco 2011, p. 43). Mischievous, cute, and quietly ferocious, the present work attests to the enduring appeal of Nara’s little rebels." — via Christie's

[classic-vintage-bmw]

1991 Z1 Art Car by A. R. Penck

In 1991, the BMW Z1 became a canvas for German artist A. R. Penck, resulting in the eleventh installment of BMW’s iconic Art Car series. The Z1, a rare roadster with vertically sliding doors and a futuristic design, was already a standout with only 8,000 units produced between 1988 and 1991. Penck transformed the last Z1 produced into a rolling masterpiece, adorning its bright red body with his signature abstract symbols and stick figures. His design, inspired by prehistoric cave paintings and modern graffiti, turned the car into a dialogue between technology and primal art. Unlike other Art Cars meant for racing, Penck’s Z1 was crafted solely as an exhibition piece, never driven on roads or tracks, preserving its status as a pure artistic statement.

Penck viewed the BMW Z1 itself as a “work of art,” a product of the creativity and imagination of BMW’s engineers and designers. His approach was to challenge this technical marvel with his own visual language, a complex system of ciphers that invite viewers to decode their meaning. The car’s surface is covered with bold, black-and-white pictographs, including his famous “Matchstick Man” silhouette, alongside totemic forms and graphic icons reminiscent of Neolithic art. This fusion of high-tech automotive design and neo-primitivist imagery creates a striking contrast, making the Z1 a three-dimensional exploration of art’s relationship with technology. Penck’s work on the car reflects his fascination with mathematics, physics, and Asian calligraphy, blending intellectual rigor with raw, expressive energy.

The Z1 Art Car has since become a celebrated piece in BMW’s Art Car Collection, displayed at exhibitions like “Art Drive!” in London in 2012. Its uniqueness lies not only in Penck’s artistry but also in its status as the only convertible in the Art Car series and the last Z1 ever produced. The car’s design continues to captivate audiences, challenging them to interpret its abstract symbols while admiring the Z1’s innovative engineering, such as its removable thermoplastic panels and steel monocoque frame. As part of BMW’s ongoing commitment to merging art and mobility, Penck’s Z1 remains a testament to the power of interdisciplinary creativity, bridging the worlds of automotive design and fine art in a way that feels both timeless and avant-garde.

A. R. Penck, born Ralf Winkler in Dresden in 1939, was a self-taught artist whose career spanned decades and defied easy categorization. Emerging in East Germany, he held his first exhibition at age 17 in 1956, showcasing a precocious talent. Influenced by Picasso, Rembrandt, and prehistoric cave paintings, Penck developed a distinctive style that blended neo-primitivism with modern abstraction. His “Matchstick Man,” created in the early 1960s, became a hallmark of his work, symbolizing human struggle and communication. During the 1980s, he gained international acclaim as a leading figure in New Figuration, with his art exhibited in major Western museums. Penck’s fascination with systems—mathematics, cybernetics, and physics—infused his work with intellectual depth, making him a fitting choice for the BMW Art Car project. He passed away in 2017, leaving a legacy as one of Germany’s most innovative and enigmatic artists.

[pwlanier]

A. R. PENCK (D.I. RALF WINKLER)

Ohne Titel, 1974.

Oil on yellow cloth

Ketterer and Kunst

[youcannottakeitwithyou]

A. R. Penck (Ralf Winkler) (German, 1939-2017).

[haikuandmore]

On Living I Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness like a squirrel, for example— I  mean,  without  looking  for  something  beyond  and  above living, I mean living must be your whole life. Living is no laughing matter: you must take it seriously, so much so and to such a degree that, for example, your hands tied behind your back, your back to the wall, or else in a laboratory in your white coat and safety glasses, you can die for people— even for people you’ve never seen, even though you know living is the most real, the most beautiful thing. I mean, you must take living so seriously that even at seventy, for example, you’ll plant olive trees — and not for your children, either, but because although you fear death you don’t believe it, because living, I mean, weighs heavier. II Let’s say we’re seriously ill, need surgery— which is to say we might not get up from the white table. Even though it’s impossible not to feel sad about going a little too soon, we’ll still laugh at the jokes being told, we’ll look out the window to see if it’s raining, or still wait anxiously for the latest newscast . . . Let’s say we’re at the front— for something worth fighting for, say. There, in the first offensive, on that very day, we might fall on our face, dead. We’ll know this with a curious anger, but we’ll still worry ourselves to death about the outcome of the war, which could last years. Let’s say we’re in prison and close to fifty, and we have eighteen more years, say, before the iron doors will open. We’ll still live with the outside, with its people and animals, struggle and wind— I mean with the outside beyond the walls. I mean, however and wherever we are, we must live as if we will never die. III This earth will grow cold, a star among stars, and one of the smallest, a gilded mote on blue velvet— I mean this, our great earth. This earth will grow cold one day, not like a block of ice or a dead cloud even but like an empty walnut it will roll along in pitch-black space . . . You must grieve for this right now —you have to feel this sorrow now— for the world must be loved this much if you’re going to say “I lived” . . . - Nâzım Hikmet February 1948 English Translation: Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk Art: A. R. Penck

[thunderstruck9]

A.R. Penck (German, 1939-2017), Kleines Weltbild [Small World View], 1992. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 65 cm.

[watchdriedpaint]

N Komplex N Komplex by A. R. Penck (1979) in Pinakothek der Moderne (München)

[fashionbooksmilano]

Specchi Ustori

Demetrio Paparoni, Michelangelo Castello

Tema Celeste Edizioni, Zangara Stampa, Siracusa 1989, 136 pagine, 28x33cm,

euro 35,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Catalogo della mostra a cura di Demetrio Paparoni e Michelangelo Castello al Museo Regionale di Palazzo Bellomo a Siracusa con Robert Barry, Domenico Bianchi, Mel Bockner, Peter Halley, Per Kirkeby, Jiri Kolar, Jannis Kounellis, Jonathan Lasker, Sol LeWitt, Mimmo Paladino, A.R. Penck, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Remo Salvadori, Keith Sonnier, Gary Stephan, Emilio Vedova, Lawrence Weiner, Bill Woofrow.

Primarily a catalog of paintings, this book does include poetry. Many of the works are untitled. Artists and authors whose works are included herein include: Robert Barry, Domenico Bianchi, Mel Bockner, Peter Halley, Per Kirkeby, Jiri Kolar, Jannis Kounellis, Jonathan Lasker, Sol Lewitt, Mimmo Paladino, Giulio Paolini, A. R. Penck, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ezra Pound, Remo Salvadori, Keith Sonnier, Gary Stephan, Emilio Vedova, Lawrence Weiner and Bill Woodrow.

17/03/24

[100-art]

A. R. Penck Selected Artworks

[casualist-tendency]

A. R. Penck (German, 1939–2017), n. t. (systembild), 1966-67, 47.8 x 39 cm