In our exhibition “Markus Lüpertz. Studies of a Sculpture” we will show a series of drawings, which came into being during an exhibition in the Bode Museum. In his drawings, Lüpertz deals with the mannerist sculpture “Apollo” by Ludwig Münstermann, an oak figure of almost one metre tall from the palace chapel in Varel, Oldenburg Land, from the year 1615/16. “Apollo” and its extraordinary historical influence on art reception intrigued and inspired Lüpertz.
Thus, four hundred years later, these drawings were made directly in front of the sculpture, which, through numerous repetitions and variations, present a thematic continuation of “Dithyramb”. “Dithyramb” is the title of a series of his paintings in which he has, since the 60s, led the ideologically fuelled discussion about abstraction or figuration to a synthesis of forms that had been declared as opposites, and has converted abstract forms into figurative elements. Each drawing is a testimony to an act of creation within which the hand of the artist is given a crucial meaning, and through which the artist does not imitate but rather produces something new. Through his reference to the art-historical artefact, Markus Lüpertz visualises the richness of the variety of forms and underlines the autonomy of art.