Untitled

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.