Albertinum: Focus Albertinum A.R. Penck

A.R. Penck

Born as Ralf Winkler in 1939 in Dresden, A.R. Penck worked under many pseudonyms as a painter, sculptor, Super-8 filmmaker, jazz musician, and poet. In the GDR, as a non-conformist artist who operated outside of the official established art system and found early international recognition, he suffered under reprisals that led to his permanent expulsion in 1980.

Exhibition Site Albertinum

DATES 26/05/2017—16/11/2017

Like no other artist, Penck critically engaged with the division of Germany. He addressed the conflicts and contradictions of both political systems in a visual language developed in the style of prehistoric cave painting that also reflected his interest in cybernetics, sign systems, and information systems. From early figurative painting, developed narrow stick figures, symbols, codes, and abstract signs in the 1960s. He used them in his World- and System Pictures as pictorial representations of complex political and social situations.

nackte Figur im Schneidersitz — **A.R. Penck, Selbstportrait sitzend, 1989** Öl auf Leinwand, 160 x 130 cm

Check it out man, check it out. A. R. Penck

Clear images create clear space that make fluctuations recognizable. A. R. Penck

Penck’s work Go Go Gorbatschow is emblematic of his thematization of the historical moment of burgeoning hope in divided Germany in the face of Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union, to which he gave an individual artistic form.

He was a professor in Düsseldorf, participated in Documenta multiple times, represented the German Pavilion in Venice and had large-scale solo exhibitions internationally. A.R. Penck last lived in Ireland.