Jörg
Immendorff
Marcel's Salvation
1998, Oil on Canvas
260 x 300cm |
In
an ode to Dadaist icon Marcel Duchamp, Immendorff paints an
art hero's Valhalla. In a living-room-cum-art studio-cum-club,
he gives the illusion of theatrical space. Images within images,
he builds an architecture through the placement of paintings
throughout the room, confusing masterpiece with reality.
Towards the back of the scene lies a brighter framed image:
this is no ordinary lounge, but a private celebrity chamber
of Café Deutschland. Figured with his favourite
cigars and chessboard, and tuxedoed waiter bringing tipple,
Duchamp accepts a light from the always hatted Joseph Beuys.
Seeming to wallow in his own chain-smoking reclusiveness,
Immendorff renders Duchamp as a rat-packish figure from another
era. High class tinged with sadness, he cuts through with
an energetic doodle of slapstick zaniness. |