538 - Jörg Immendorff (1945, Bleckede near Lüneburg – Düsseldorf, 2007)

Jörg Immendorff (1945, Bleckede near Lüneburg – Düsseldorf, 2007) Me in the Forest of Brushes Bronze with a brown-green patina. 1989. Approx. 145 x 55 x 49 cm. One of only 6 numbered copies. Signed and dated on the plinth, and bearing the foundry mark “KAYSER & KLIPPEL DÜSSELDORF.” •Striking self-portrait from 1989, depicting Immendorff as a combative artist in a forest of paintbrushes •Paintbrushes instead of weapons as a powerful allegory for art’s social responsibility •Rare bronze from an edition of only six pieces, created in the historic year of the fall of the Berlin Wall With his unmistakably distinctive portrait features, Jörg Immendorff presents himself as a hunter and gatherer, equipped with a quiver full of brushes and surrounded by a veritable forest of other painting tools. The slender, upright figure appears ready to set out into the field and face his task. But his weapons are not arrows, but paintbrushes. For Immendorff, art was never a purely aesthetic matter. His work was driven by the conviction that artists can take a stand through their works and spark social change. In particular, postwar German society, its historical baggage, and the division of the country preoccupied him for decades. The bronze sculpture “Ich im Pinselwald” (Me in the Forest of Brushes), created in 1989—the year the Berlin Wall fell—condenses this aspiration into a self-portrait that is as personal as it is programmatic. Through his art, Immendorff confronts the political and social issues of his time. The sculpture thus becomes a symbol of a conviction that runs through his entire body of work: for him, art is not merely artistic expression, but also a social responsibility. The Kunstpalast Düsseldorf is currently hosting a retrospective dedicated to Jörg Immendorff—the first comprehensive exhibition of its kind in his adopted home city on the Rhine. On view there is a version of the sculpture in painted wood titled “Zurück ins Feld” (Back to the Field) from 1990. Provenance: Galerie Rackey, Bad Honnef; Private collection, Rhineland; Ketterer Kunst, Munich, Dec. 10, 2011, Lot 330; Private collection, Southern Germany, acquired from the aforementioned source. Taxation: subject to margin scheme (VAT: Margin Scheme).