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About Jorg Immendorff and his art

Text written by Patricia Ellis

"Art is universal. That may sound like a cliché, but art is more than something material; it has to do with the spirit." Immendorff, 2003

One of the leading figures of the new German Expressionism, along with George Baselitz and Anselm Keifer, Jörg Immendorff's paintings first came to international prominence in the 1970's. Having studied with Joseph Bueys in the 1960's, Immendorff approaches painting through a conceptualist stand-point; his works deal largely with the crisis of post-war German identity, a frenetic relationship with modernity, and a deep rooted faith in the role of the artist as an integral political and social force.

Immendorff's large canvases are fraught with imagery, a proverbial, and often literal theatre of decadence. His stage set compositions allude to the illusionary aspects of art: Immendorff doesn't present a reality, but rather a dominion of his own control, a personal mythology that is often poignant, humorous, scathing, and prophetic. With the Café Deutschland series (late 70s), and later the Café de Flore series (80's) Immendorff posited a fictional territory within which he was free to explore and portray his thoughts on art, his country, politics and the world in general.

"In my paintings, symbols associated with National Socialist Germany function as kinds of clichés in so far as they stand for universal evils. The factors that led to [Hilter's] rise to power and the destruction he subsequently wrought remain permanent dangers. Such images must be painted. To make them taboo would be regressive. The smoking swastika indicates that the matter is far from closed, be it in Germany or - from the perspective of 2003 - the malicious terrorism emanating from the Middle East. Evil takes root and flourishes when art and freedom of expression are censored...". (Immendorff, in conversation with Pamela Kort, Artforum, March 2003)

Myth-making is at the core of Immendorff's work. Developing his own complex brand of symbolism, his paintings can be read as allegory. Political iconography, such as the German eagle, Soviet sickle, and Worker's fist, mix quite literally with Immendorff's ever expanding cast of characters: both politicians and his artist friends. At the heart is a rewriting of history - both political and artistic - where personal positioning and moral reconciliation is at the forefront.

Immendorff's style lies somewhere between painterly expressionism and political cartoon; equally revered and populist. Exaggerating each element to its graphic extreme, Immendorff uses paint as a means to negotiate his own position through documenting a 20th century zeitgeist. Operating like medieval religious painting, Immendorff not only presents the story of our time, but questions the morality and ethic of an increasingly frivolous society.

"It is almost impossible to recapture the utopian spirit of the 80's today, not only because there are no cultural dialogues, but because there is less possibility today of reconciling religious, racial, and moral differences. In my eyes, everyone in the world.should put the questions on the table again just as they did in the 80's: 'What's the reason I paint? What is the purpose of the work I carry out every day?' "(Immendorff, in conversation with Pamela Kort, Artforum, March 2003)

For Immendorff, the act of painting extends beyond creative function: it becomes the most relevant means by which an individual can make an impact in history: measuring oneself against the world, taking a personal viewpoint, and creating real meaning from contemporary existence.

"I tell my students, 'Take your time. Breathe for twenty years or so. Try and make a portrait of yourself that depicts who you will be thirty years from now.' "

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