Markus Lüpertz: Palazzo Loredan

Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, with the support of Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present Markus Lüpertz: Palazzo Loredan, an exhibition of recent paintings and sculptures by the iconic German artist Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941, Liberec, Bohemia). The ornate libraries and halls of the extraordinary Palazzo Loredan on Campo Santo Stefano provide a unique and unexpected environment to view the artist’s works.
 
One of the most important and influential contemporary artists in post-war Europe, Lüpertz has continually engaged in a critical dialogue with painters of the past. The artist has said, “I live with artists I routinely retrieve from the recesses of history, and then they become part of my everyday life, they are my companions, they exist for me. I deal with them as if they were alive.” 
 
Evoking figures from the paintings of Rubens, Poussin, David, Puvis de Chavannes, Courbet, Manet, and others and placing them in contemporary settings, Lüpertz creates art that is entirely new. The artist elaborates, “Today, avant-gardism has become a credo with its own rituals. I thrive to move past that and define something new and unique. For this I often look back at Old Masters. Influences I navigate between in order to arrive at a very specific visual language, a visual language of our time.”
 
Lüpertz’s new work pulls from art history, exploring the biblical stories of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve, and St. Sebastian as well as the ancient myth of Dionysus. Aside from investigating traditional subjects, the artist reinterprets philosophic and introspective historic artistic impulses including allegory, mortality, and the idyllic utopia of Arcadia.
 
In recent years, major surveys by the artist have been presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; The Hermitage State Museum, St. Petersburg; Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Haus der Kunst, Munich;  Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; and most recently, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Markus Lüpertz: Palazzo Loredan opens at Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in the Palazzo Loredan on Campo Santo Stefano with a private view from 5-8pm on 19 April. A comprehensive catalogue in English, German, French, and Italian with text by art historian Eric Darragon will accompany the exhibition.

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