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Martin Kippenberger

Magical Misery Tour, Brazil

September 23–December 22, 2004
Britannia Street, London

Installation view with Crushed Metro Entrance (1997) © 2018 Estate Martin Kippenberger

Installation view with Crushed Metro Entrance (1997)

© 2018 Estate Martin Kippenberger

Installation view with Brazil Today (1986) Artwork © 2018 Estate Martin Kippenberger

Installation view with Brazil Today (1986)

Artwork © 2018 Estate Martin Kippenberger

About

Gagosian Gallery, London is pleased to present Martin Kippenberger: "The Magical Misery Tour, Brazil."

The exhibition will consist of two very large works by Martin Kippenberger showing disparate yet complimentary aspects of his work. The installation "Brazil Today" is the artist's caustic vision of international cultural relations with its sculptural figure of Rio's "Cristo Redemptor" transformed into a backstroke swimmer and a beach-front gas station renamed after the Nazi refugee Martin Bormann and converted to dispense alcohol not gasoline.

Also exhibited is the New York "Metro-Net Transportable Subway Entrance (crushed)" (1997), a crushed aluminum subway entrance forming part of Kippenberger's epic imaginary network of underground connections.

Martin Kippenberger (1953-97) made paintings, sculpture and installations which offer a humorous yet bitter commentary on the modern world and the artists place in it. Only in recent years, after his premature death is Kippenberger's extraordinary and influential work becoming internationally recognised. The exhibition is arranged in co-operation with the artist's Estate and Gisela Capitain Gallery.

A fully illustrated catalogue with texts by the late John Caldwell and Stephen Prina will accompany the exhibition.