The sometimes monumental sculptures of painter, sculptor and poet Professor Markus Lüpertz (*1941, Liberec, Reichenberg) can be found in numerous squares and buildings across Germany. Born in Reichenberg and raised in Rheydt, he became a protagonist of a new figurative style of painting with expressive features in West Berlin in the 1960s. After professorships in Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf, he left his mark on the Kunstakademie in the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia when he held the post of rector for 21 years.
His style is characterized by a powerful visual language and a tendency towards the monumental. He touches on taboos in his art and opposes a clear and comprehensible ideal of beauty. His exploration of ancient myths and his preoccupation with European cultural history is reflected in many of his works. At the same time, his works often surprise the viewer with their provocative radicalism, which, not infrequently, trigger public controversy.
Figure with goose as a mythological figure
Markus Lüpertz created the 3.6-meter-high bronze sculpture of a powerful female figure with a goose – colored like all his sculptures – for the banks of the Rhein in Monheim. The upright figure with her tilted head is being nuzzled by a goose on her left. The bird directs its beak towards the face of the female figure and it is unclear whether it is giving her a kiss or whispering something into her ear. When designing the work, the artist was inspired by two different motifs: firstly, the Gänseliesel (Goose Girl) that figures on the coat of arms of Mohneim and is part of the city logo, and, secondly, the mythological figure of Leda.
Markus Lüpertz combines both these motifs and narratives, drawing on a model by Leonardo da Vinci. Around 1500, the Italian artist created a well-known depiction of Leda, who was seduced by the Zeus, the father of all Greek gods, when he took the form of a swan. According to the mythological tale, he sired with her the beautiful Helen and her sister Clytemnestra, who both hatched from an egg.
An ancient motif
Other artists also took up the narrative and the motif in their works, with Michelangelo, for example, providing a different and often-copied design around 1530. The physical figure of Leda was repeatedly adapted to fit in with the individual taste of the artist, such as in Paul Cezanne’s version. Markus Lüpertz associates Cezanne’s paintings with the moving surface design, through which their respective artistic means become visible. In Cezanne’s case, these are the seemingly chopped-off brushstrokes; in the case of Lüpertz, the plastic material, which is flexible in the design stage and was only later translated into bronze. For stylistic reasons, in terms of artistic freedom, the figure of Leda deviates from the usual figure of the slender and rather graceful Gänseliesel, or Goose Girl; here, in contrast, she has been depicted as rather athletic. The obvious violation of expectations and ideals of beauty was already a point of contemporary criticism in Cezanne’s work, until later a deeper understanding of free artistic expression made a milder viewpoint possible.
