7274 - Koeppel, Matthias

Koeppel, Matthias "Badeanstalt (Lübars)" Oil on canvas. 1976–77. 170 x 200 cm. Signed "M. KOEPPEL" and dated; signed again on the reverse of the stretcher with pencil as "Matthias Koeppel," dated, titled, with the artist’s address as well as an address label, the dimensions, and labeled "Oil on Canvas." Bikinis slip, revealing the pinkish-white pallor of Berliners, and sun-warmed bellies stretch over pant waistbands. No one here on the sunbathing lawn at the Reinickendorf Ziegeleisee beach is tanned. In the foreground on the right, the painter himself sits on the lawn looking out at the water, while the sole swimmer, in turn, gazes benevolently from a safe distance at the densely packed crowd of sunbathing Berliners, who are recovering from the drudgery of daily wage labor without a trace of prudishness. Koeppel, who repeatedly addresses German contemporary history, vividly highlights the situation in West Berlin during the 1970s through this crowd: In the enclosed city, there were only a limited number of public beaches, which always led to overcrowding there on summer days. The man swimming alone under the sign “For Swimmers Only” is the prominent, outspoken journalist Dieter Gütt, who hosted *Weltspiegel* on ARD, headed *Tagesschau* between 1977 and 1980, and founded *Tagesthemen* there. After Koeppel’s slightly larger (200 x 200 cm) first version of the motif was destroyed, he created this second version, which is somewhat more compressed in height. Together with Johannes Grützke, Manfred Bluth, and Karlheinz Ziegler, Koeppel had founded the artist group “Schule der neuen Prächtigkeit” (School of New Splendor) in 1973, which opposed abstract painting and advocated a new realism characterized by irony and satire. Around the same time, he moved into a studio on the 13th floor of a high-rise building in the Märkisches Viertel, not far from the Strandbad, and the view from there provided him with lasting inspiration for his characteristic cityscapes featuring expansive skies. Provenance: Dieter Gütt Collection, Frankfurt am Main Private collection, Hesse Lit.: Matthias Koeppel. Paintings and Drawings, Ladengalerie, Berlin 1980, with ill. (n.p.) - Please ask for condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.