Markus Lüpertz

Markus Lüpertz is arguably the most eclectic artist of his time. He appropriates all styles and themes to create his world and to explore the meaning of painting. In doing so, he constantly navigates between objectivity, subjectivity, figuration, and abstraction. This appropriation represents for him a fundamental freedom, allowing his art to focus on art itself rather than its component values such as narrative, figuration, societal relevance, and more.

The exhibition at MDD is Lüpertz's first solo presentation in Belgium, showcasing a series of recent drawings, etchings, and watercolors, all conceived around the theme of ‘The Three Graces’, one of the most interpreted themes in art history. However, Lüpertz does not approach this theme from the sensual qualities of the subject; the Graces invariably represent classical values ​​of beauty, dignity, and integrity. Instead, he abstracts his subject matter to give it a purely painterly approach, devoid of the narrative aspect of the theme.

On the other hand, the exhibition also features a series of naked backs. These works also do not deal with the sensuality of the nude. It is even difficult to determine whether they are male or female nudes. Instead, he investigates the back - a motif that has been used regularly since Rubens - and how it can be approached in a contemporary painterly manner. The back is viewed as an abstract landscape. This distance from sensuality does not mean that Lüpertz did not feel connected to his subjects. He always seeks a balance between such involvement and detachment. According to Lüpertz, too much emotional attachment quickly becomes narrative, resulting in too much 'peripheral effect' on the images he creates, causing them to lose their universality.