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A.R. Penck ( -) STALIN WAR UR EIN SPIEL artist's signature inscribed into the frame on the reverse Lücke TPT: Harald Gallasch.Wolgang Opitz.A.R Penck.Terk.Gemeinschaftsbilder.Dresden 1971 – 1976, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, 1992 Lücke TPT: Harald Gallasch.Wolgang Opitz.A.R Penck.Terk.Gemeinschaftsbilder.Dresden 1971 – 1976, St?dtische Galerie im St?del, Frankfurt am Main, 1992 Lücke TPT: Harald Gallasch.Wolgang Opitz.A.R Penck.Terk.Gemeinschaftsbilder.Dresden 1971 – 1976, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Gem?ldegalerie Neue Meister, 1993 Lücke TPT: Harald Gallasch.Wolgang Opitz.A.R Penck.Terk.Gemeinschaftsbilder.Dresden 1971 – 1976, Universit?tsdruckerei und Verlag, H.Schmidt GmbH. Mainz, 1972, illustrated on P90 PROVENANCEAccompanied by Lücke TPT: Harald Gallasch.Wolgang Opitz.A.R Penck.Terk. Gemeinschaftsbilder.Dresden 1971 – 1976, Universit?tsdruckerei und Verlag, H.Schmidt GmbH. Mainz, 1972. Signed by the artist. Schmerbach Collection, Berlin 123 by 84cm SYMBOLS AND NEO-EXPRESSIONISM IN POST-WAR GERMANY Since A.R. Penck’s death in 2017 there has been considerable interest in his artwork. Posthumous solo exhibitions have showcased his bold, restless work, filled with his own self-created symbols. These include A.R. Penck: Paintings from the 1980s and Memorial to an Unknown East German Soldier, both held at the Michael Werner Gallery in New York in 2018, as well as the acclaimed I think in Pictures, a show of Penck’s featured works from the 1970s and 1980s held at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at Oxford University in 2019. Penck was born Ralf Winkler in Dresden in 1939. He adopted his chosen pseudonym after the paleogeologist Albrecht Penck out of necessity when the East German State Security began to confiscate his works in the 1960s. His art was deemed not to conform to the ideology of the state. In 1969 the Michel Werner Gallery hosted Penck's first solo show, signalling the beginning of a relationship that would be fortuitous and supportive throughout the artist’s career. Exhibiting in New York was only possible because the artist had changed his name, confusing border officials and allowing his work to pass through the Berlin wall. Michel Werner himself smuggled some of Penck’s artworks out of East Berlin, and arranged for friends in the city to deliver art materials to Penck in order for him to continue his practice.Penck’s Standart works are characterised by a myriad of pictographic marks that the artist viewed as the ‘building blocks’ he used to communicate his ideology, leaving clues and riddles for the viewers of his paintings in this lexicon of coded language. The artist began to explore how symbols, signs and numbers could be abstracted, creating a common language which could express the sadness and loss of post-World War II Germany in the Cold War era. An example is the letters ‘A’ and ‘B’ it is understood that he is referencing the capitalist West Germany and communist East Germany. Due to this aesthetic, Penck is often associated with artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, although it is more likely that the artist’s style emerged spontaneously. He had little access to the work of his Western contemporaries whilst living in East Germany (German Democratic Republic) which heavily censored any influence that threatened the state. There has been a resurgence of interest in A.R. Penck’s work in recent years, at a time when contemporary artists are exploring the tenuous relationship of abstraction and figuration, and personal and recognisable iconographies and symbols. This has resulted in his work gaining momentum on the secondary market.In 1971 Penck was a founding member of the artist’s group GAP, along with Steffen Terk, Wolfgang Opitz and Harald Gallasch. GAP existed until 1976. Stalin War Nur Ein Spiel is an acrylic on board work in which Penck incorporated a number of found objects including pieces of wood, playing cards and a book about Stalin. The book has been adhered to the board only by the back cover, making it possible to turn the pages. Thus making the information potentially available. The playing cards allude to games and a magician’s tricks. A literal work, all elements directly link to the title, which translates from German to mean Stalin Was Just a Game.