In our current short-cut exhibition with Markus Lüpertz, we have the pleasure of presenting one of the best-known contemporary artists. As a Neo-Expressionist, Lüpertz had a significant influence on post-war art. His oeuvre of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures is not only diverse - but also polarizing. The artist moves in monumental and archaic worlds of motifs that deal with centuries of human history and reveal contemporary parallels. The representational ability and emotionality of visual art that the artist strives for can be seen in the simultaneous abstraction and figuration. Through abstraction, he concentrates his pictorial language and thus directs the focus to symbols and motifs with a strongly suggestive effect. The symbolic monumentality inherent in his works goes hand in hand with a delicate style of painting and drawing that is characterized by accuracy and thus inspires in every detail. 

The Bode Galerie is showing paintings, drawings and original prints by Markus Lüpertz from various creative periods. The work series "Troy" is presented in a scope of 18 works and thus forms the focus of the presentation. 

In the "Troy" series, Lüpertz depicts one of the most famous turning points in mythological history, hovering between hope, beauty and an inevitable downfall. The symbol of the horse is diametrically opposed - depending on which side the narrator chooses to take. For one, it is a tricky means of victory for Greece and for the other, the symbol of the unjustified downfall of the flourishing city of Troy. The myth of Troy is full of symbols of the emotional weaknesses of mankind: arrogance, vanity and lust.