Lot 14 D

“Neuer Raum“ [new room] addresses a situation of upheaval, a physical as well as mental change that seems to be taking place in a profound way for the painted protagonist at this very moment. The depiction is divided vertically into two parts – hastily and with outstretched movements, the man leaves the white area; when entering the red area, his own colouring changes from white to black. He is striving towards the figure with four arms and four legs standing in the background, which is not only vividly interacting with him but also with the other objects surrounding it. An insight into the brain of the protagonist also reveals his mental connection with the red space; however, by a cuboid locking device hanging from his right arm, he seems to be captured in the white space.
A.R. Penck deals with social and political issues in his ostensibly simple but in fact highly complex pictograms developed on the basis of philosophical and art-historical research. “Without being tied to concrete events, it is about problem situations and decision conflicts in the social reality of the individual person.” (Karin Thomas, Krise und Ich-Findung im künstlerischen Psychogramm, Freundesbild und Selbstporträt, in: Eckhart Gillen (ed.), Deutschlandbilder, Kunst aus einem geteilten Land, Cologne 1997, p.550).