BADEN.- Markus Lüpertz was invited by Arnulf Rainer to personally plan an exhibition for the museum. Rainer gave his friend and fellow artist unlimited access as far as selecting works was concerned and carte blanche with the exhibition spaces in the museum. Thus Markus Lüpertz, unhindered by stipulations as to content and free from any other restriction, has realised a composed dialogue between painting and sculpture.

The title of the exhibition draws attention to the fact that, considering the oeuvre of the two artists, it is factually correct to use the description, bildende Kunst. The German phrase contains layered meanings the most common being ‘visual art’. However, bildende also resonates with ‘educational’ ‘formative’ or ‘continutive’ all of which speaks to the stratified reception of the works of both Markus Lüpertz and Arnulf Rainer. In the exhibition the pictures are ‘irritated’ by plastic forms and this orchestrated proximity of the genres allows the viewer to take a direct approach to the essence of art: the use of colour and material, the finding and employing of form and proportion, the spatial design of two- and three-dimensional works but, above all, the indefatigable spirit of invention and creative drive of two of the most important living artists.

In the exceptional rooms of the museum housed in the historical women’s bath in Baden, Lüpertz confronts 25 of his sculptures and one painting with 25 pictures, a sculpture and over-painted books by Arnulf Rainer. His selection of Arnulf Rainer pictures concentrates on two thematic groups –– first, Rainer’s expressive, gestural paintings from the 1980s based on illustrations from historical scientific publications on human anatomy and, second, the most recent works in which Rainer encounters photographs of classical sculptures with restrained and poetic painting.

Lüpertz contrasts the paintings with a series of small, hand-painted bronze sculptures which display intense colouration. However, the large-scale plaster busts and heads which have come directly from his studio play a special role in the exhibition. These original plaster sculptures enable viewers to feel and conjecture the hand of the artist more intensively than the bronzes which are later cast from them. In presence and quality – stamped with great artistic experience – the hand-painted plaster pieces by Markus Lüpertz reveal a kindred affinity to Arnulf Rainer’s painting. Thus brightly coloured ancient heroes such as Hercules, Odysseus and Atlas embodied in sculptures and Romantic greats such as Hölderlin and Beethoven made by Lüpertz encounter Arnulf Rainer’s multi-layered, overpainted pictures about anatomy, ancient art and William Shakespeare.

‘Arnulf Rainer, a pious painter who insults the gods with a heathen delight. A painter who opened Pandora’s box and is astounded by the diversity of possibilities. Drunkenly wallowing in morning glories, the diversion of eternal youthfulness, Arnulf remains unruly. And great.’ (Markus Lüpertz, 2015)