For the Independent 20th Century in New York, Michael Janssen presents the works of German painter Klaus Liebig that reflect two crucial decades of his artistic trajectory — the 1970s and 1990s. Liebig, whose works are part of the MOMA collection, still remains relatively unknown to the international art community. European audiences may recognize his paintings from the successful group show titled „Let‘s Mix All Feelings Together,“ which took place at major museums in Europe, including the Musée d‘Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Louisiana Museum at Humlebæk in Denmark, during the late 1970s. The exhibition brought together the works of four artists whose experimental creative practices were conceptually aligned with the aesthetics of American Pop Art and comics: Gianfranco Baruchello, Öyvind Fahlström, Erró, and Klaus Liebig.
In his enigmatic paintings, Liebig incorporates elements of collage and employs nonlinear structures to construct complex visual narratives. Liebig‘s artistic process is underpinned by his collection of images and texts from literature, ethnography, psychology, mythology, and anthropology. Carefully organized into approximately 200 folders, these materials form the painter‘s personal encyclopedia, providing him with inspiration for both the thematic content and formal elements of his work.
Liebig’s symbolic narratives possess an eerie familiarity, as if emerging from the depths of a long-forgotten dream, evoking a strong sense of déjà vu. These inherently psychological landscapes are filled with multifaceted expressions of eroticism, where naked corporeality takes on various forms: a psychological state, a mystical vision, or a coveted commodity. In the paintings from the 1970s, ‚Am Flüsschen‘ [By the Little River], ‚Pour Piazzolla‘ [For Piazzolla], and ‚Tatou‘ [Tattoo], nudity is portrayed in fragments, alluding to a dark sensuality and engaging with the shadowy realms of the unconscious, often repressed or disowned. The enchanting color palette, dominated by radiant blues and greens, intensifies the unsettling silence of this ethereal realm. Humanoid forms crowned with giant insects, female legs clad in stockings and red high-heels, and body parts adorned with dragon tattoos depersonalize and fragmentize the notion of the erotic. Perspectives are distorted, disoriented, and often inverted in a captivatingly chaotic manner, heightening the phantasmagoric allure of Liebig‘s works.
Artworks from the series ‚Kleine Szene‘ [Small Scene], created in the early 1990s, reveal a radical aesthetic shift from highly graphic collage paintings to abstract landscapes with figurative elements. Characters are depicted as blurred silhouettes, as if viewed from a distance — faceless doppelgangers who blend into superimposed scenes of forests, open fields, mountains, and seashores. The generous use of luminous magenta, lilac, and pink hues infuses the paintings with a tropical warmth, while the interplay of muted and vibrant greens softens the intensity of the purple tones. A multi-layered quilt woven with bold color compositions imbues the paintings with captivating visual depth, evoking a rich sensorial experience for the viewer.
In the series „Nachtstücke“ [Night Pieces], separated from „Kleine Szene“ by only a few years, Liebig’s artistic focus undergoes a dramatic change once again. The works within this series showcase whimsical imagery, reminiscent of cut-ups from old magazines, set against dark backgrounds to create visual narratives inspired by vintage advertisements. The painting „McDonald’s“ captivates with its surreal mirage of modern life as a neo-liberal fairytale, in which bright yellow „M“ signs saturate the canvas with the ubiquitous presence of street advertisements. Meanwhile, in „Die Saurier Kommen“ [The Dinosaurs Are Coming], the artist conjures a prehistoric Elysium where dinosaurs coexist with glamorous women who move across volcanic islands on high heels.
Liebig’s absurdist sceneries are replete with visual elements that traverse the metaphysical narratives, making cameo appearances across multiple paintings and adding layers of complexity to the visual storytelling. In a contemporary landscape shaped by the tumultuous tapestry of social media, Liebig‘s art‘s fragmented yet fluid nature remains profoundly pertinent.
By Karina Abdusalamova
