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A.R. PENCK (RALF WINKLER)(Dresden 1939 - lives and works in Dublin)
Whale-Hunting. 1991.
Dispersion on canvas.
Signed lower left: ar penck.
60 x 90 cm.
Provenance:
- Acquired fromGalerie Lelong, Zurich, by
the present owner in 1991 (with the label
on the reverse).
- Since then privately owned Switzerland.
In his painting „Whale Hunting“, A.R.
Penck (actually Ralf Winkler) broaches the
subjects of whaling, species protection
and the human-animal relationship with
unusually clear imagery. A human – re-
presented here by a stickman, which in
its simplicity and archaism is reminiscent
of early cave paintings, and which has
become a kind of trademark of Penck‘s
painting style since around 1963 – attacks
the whale, much greater than him in size,
with a raised spear. Penck also emphasises
the man‘s aggression with a dominant red
colour which stands in stark contrast to
the dark mass of the whale’s body. Despite
the clarity and recognisability of these
scenes and symbolism, Penck’s interpre-
tation is neither literal nor one-dimensi-
onal. A.R. Penck, who was a professor at
the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1989
to 2003, does not tell a simple visual story
but rather in dense composition, links
the individual with the general to form a
timeless reality. In much the same way as
his stickmen recall early cave paintings and
his choice of pseudonym is an ode to the
famous ice age researcher and geologist
Albrecht Penck (1885-1945), he addres-
ses the balance between humans and
nature, the interplay between humans and
animals, the balance of power, the force of
nature and its endangerment.
With his unmistakable style of abstracted
figures and symbols, Penck creates a
universal vocabulary in which the memory
of the advent of painting merges with con-
temporary history and modern science to
form a distinctive visual universe, as it does
here in „Whale Hunting“.
CHF 12 000 / 18 000
(€ 11 110 / 16 670)