Martin Kippenberger
Born 1953, Dortmund, West Germany
Lived and worked in Vienna, Austria
Died 1997, Vienna

Martin Kippenberger’s The Happy Ending of Franz Kafka’s "Amerika," takes its inspiration from the 1927 novel, Amerika, by Czech author Franz Kafka. In the concluding chapter of Kafka’s novel, the protagonist attends an employment -recruiting center of gargantuan proportions and, after a long struggle with absurd bureaucratic structures, finally lands a job. The real and surreal are closely related in the world described in Kafka’s novel as they are in Kippenberger’s huge installation. The sheer volume of tables and chairs set up on a "playing field" ready for the "game" of the interview process overwhelms with the vastness and absurdity of its physical presence. Kafka’s bureaucratic machine takes on a humor and pathos in Kippenberger’s hands in his selection of worn-out, cast-off furniture. Like Kafka before him, Kippenberger was both satirist and allegorist of an intolerable human truth: the power of the social order to negate human will.

Martin Kippenberger, The Happy End of Franz Kafka's "Amerika," 1994/1999, installation of tables and chairs and mixed media on Astroturf, installation dimensions variable (installation view)

Martin Kippenberger, The Happy End of Franz Kafka's "Amerika," 1994/1999, installation of tables and chairs and mixed media on Astroturf, installation dimensions variable (installation view)

Martin Kippenberger’s twenty-year exhibition history includes the recent group exhibitions docu- menta X, Kassel, Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, and Deutschlandbilder, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (1997); and Fast Forward (Image), Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg, and Mai 98, Kunsthalle, Cologne (1998). Solo shows of Kippenberger's work have been presented at Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne (1987, 1989, 1990, 1997); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (1991); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1993); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1994); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1995); Stödtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, and Metro Pictures, New York (1997); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles, and Kunsthalle Basel (1998); and Deichtor- hallen Hamburg (1999).

Education
1972-76 Hochschule für bildende Künste, Hamburg

Selected Further Reading
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany. Martin Kippenberger: The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s “Amerika” (1999). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Zdenek Felix, Rudolf Schmitz, and Veit Loers.

Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, and Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany. Martin Kippenberger (1998). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Daniel Baumann, Peter Pakesch, Stephen Prina, Franz West, and Michel Würthle.

Ohrt, Roberto. Kippenberger. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1997.

Kippenberger, Martin. The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s “Amerika.” St. Georgen, Germany: Familie Grásslin, 1993.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California. Martin Kippenberger: I Had a Vision (1991). Published in conjunction with the exhibition Martin Kippenberger: New Work; text by John Caldwell, interview by Jutta Koether.