Markus Lüpertz (*1941 in Liberec, now in the Czech Republic) is considered one of the defining figures of postwar German art. As a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and poet, he has developed a distinctive visual language since the 1960s that moves between figuration and abstraction. In particular, his so-called “dithyrambic painting” combines expressive gesture with references to art history, mythology, and literature. Lüpertz has engaged intensively with the tradition of European painting and is regarded as a major innovator of figurative art in Germany.
Among his most important institutional exhibitions are presentations at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (1973), Kunsthalle Bern (1977), participation in documenta 7 in Kassel (1982), the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven (1983), Lenbachhaus Munich (1986), the Albertina Vienna (2010), and the major retrospective “Über die Kunst zum Bild” at Haus der Kunst Munich (2019/20). Today, his works are held in numerous international museum collections, including the Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Moderna Museet Stockholm.
