Drei Häuser mit Schlitzen (Betty Ford Klinik, Stammheim, Jüdische Grundschule)

Martin Kippenberger was a multi-talented artist who drew, painted and created installations, photographs and sculptures, while also organising events, interspersed with giving lectures and making pop music. He loved being provocative and did not spare himself from his own mockery – as demonstrated by his self-portraits with a beer belly. In his triptych Drei Häuser mit Schlitzen (Betty Ford Klinik, Stammheim, Jüdische Grundschule), the painted buildings depict three institutions with an emotional charge: a rehab clinic, a prison and a Jewish primary school. These buildings share a morphological feature: they all have ‘Schlitzen’ (slits). Kippenberger painted the canvas with rapid, violent movements, constructing his depictions out of contrasting rectangular and trapezoidal forms in bright yellowish green, ochre and lead grey. The triptych incorporates different layers of meaning. The institutions refer to recent German history, with its alcoholic showbiz types, leftwing radicals and the persecution of the Jews. The work also has a personal connotation. It refers to the sheds in the garden of Kippenberger’s childhood home, where his parents would retreat after an argument so that they could spend some time alone.