Initialed and dated at lower right, M.K. 90.
Kippenberger was known for his oversize and spirited persona and often provocative art. Making little distinction between his art and his life, Kippenberger produced numerous self-portraits as an antihero. Here, he poses as George Brazil, a brand mascot for a hardware store in Phoenix, Arizona. The exaggerated foreshortening results in an awkward stance that contrasts with the self-confident stride of the original figure. The work belongs to a series of drawings Kippenberger produced on hotel stationery in the 1990s, indicative of his peripatetic life. Innsbruck is where he took yearly health cures to recuperate from heavy drinking and a fast-paced lifestyle -- which ended with his death from liver cancer at age forty-three.