"In the Footsteps of Penck"

This is the path we invite you to take with us, four years after the death on May 2, 2017 in Zürich of the German artist, born in Dresden on October 5, 1939.

Let us recall that born Ralf Winkler, the artist had from 1969 invented many pseudonyms (Mike Hammer, T.M.,Y, Ypsilon …), and in particular that of A.R. Penck, in homage to the geologist of the 19th century expert of the ice age. But above all, let us recall that these changes of identity allowed him to avoid the confiscation of his works by the authorities of East Germany and thus to be able to exhibit them in the West! This story, which seems so far away and so close to us, is ours.

We will not discuss here the major influence this artist had on the art history of the second half of the 20th century and well beyond the borders of fledgling Europe. However, we do not take too many risks in writing that both primitive and pop, tribal and global, Penck’s artworks borrows from parietal figuration the symbol of a human silhouette that stays forever contemporary.

In the exhibition catalog, Henri-François Debailleux expresses it better than we do and underlines the relentless coherence that underlies all of the artist’s work through all the mediums he was fond of. It is this variety (paintings, drawings, ceramics, bronze, seri-graphs on paper) and this determined unity, which guided Vincent Fraikin in the selection of the works he proposed to us to present to you.

In these uncertain times for the cultural offer to the public, we share with him the conviction that one of the essential roles of the gallery owner is also to open this kind of path in the footsteps of …

Doriano Navarra – Galerie 75 Faubourg

Download the press release

Download the exhibition catalog