"Art is universal

"Art is universal. That may sound like a clich? but art is more than something material; it has to do with the spirit." Immendorff, 2003 One of the leading figures of the new German Expressionism, along with George Baselitz and Anselm Keifer, J鰎g Immendorff's paintings first came to international prominence in the 1970's. Having studied with Joseph Bueys in the 1960's, Immendorff approaches painting through a conceptualist stand-point; his works deal largely with the crisis of post-war German identity, a frenetic relationship with modernity, and a deep rooted faith in the role of the artist as an integral political and social force.

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Immendorff's large canvases are fraught with imagery, a proverbial, and often literal theatre of decadence. His stage set compositions allude to the illusionary aspects of art: Immendorff doesn't present a reality, but rather a dominion of his own control, a personal mythology that is often poignant, humorous, scathing, and prophetic. With the Caf?Deutschland series (late 70s), and later the Caf?de Flore series (80's) Immendorff posited a fictional territory within which he was free to explore and portray his thoughts on art, his country, politics and the world in general. "In

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my paintings, symbols associated with National Socialist Germany function as kinds of clich閟 in so far as they stand for universal evils. The factors that led to [Hilter's] rise to power and the destruction he subsequently wrought remain permanent dangers. Such images must be painted. To make them taboo would be regressive. The smoking swastika indicates that the matter is far from closed, be it in Germany or - from the perspective of 2003 - the malicious terrorism emanating from the Middle East. Evil takes root and flourishes when art and freedom of expression are censored...". (Immendorff, in conversation with Pamela Kort, Artforum, March 2003) Myth-making is at the core of Immendorff's work. Developing his own complex brand of symbolism, his paintings can be read as allegory. Political iconography, such as the German eagle, Soviet sickle, and Worker's fist, mix quite literally with Immendorff's ever expanding cast of characters: both politicians and his artist friends. At the heart is a rewriting of history - both political and artistic - where personal positioning and moral reconciliation is at the forefront. Jorg Immendorff: I Wanted to be an Artist This expert survey of J鰎g Immendorff's career reassesses an artist whose period of notoriety in America lasted a relatively short time in the 1980's. This was partly a matter of mistaken identity - he was too closely linked with the neo-expressionist and new image (?) bandwagon prevalent at the time. His connection to direct contemporaries who gained mega-celebrity status, Anselm Keifer and Gerhardt Richter, is also shown to be partly incidental. From this exhibition, Immendorff emerges more fully as an original artist of great complexity. This reevaluation also makes distinctions that remove him from convenient generalizations made about the "postmodern" Eighties, the Trans-Avant-Garde, and art generally, and it illustrates thoroughly the conceptual nature of his work. Born in 1945, Immendorff was of the generation that experienced post-war disillusionment that politicized every waking moment. As a student in the 1960s, he faced the task of examining Germany's tragic history and its fraught relationship with modernity. This forced him to devise a balancing act between eras. Immendorff subsequently takes on the multiple roles of jester, storyteller and historian. He actively participates in a self-conscious continuum of twentieth-century German art while simultaneously throwing stones at the powers that be. After running the full gamut of conceptual work ?la fluxus, his adoption of painting appears as a sort of purposeful and elaborate bluff. Although this suits his needs, it makes the connection to Ludwig Kirchner and the original German expressionist group die Br點ke seem almost superfluous. What comes to the fore instead is a weaving together of political, social and personal myth making. It is the content that matters most, putting him more in line with the social, satirical and metaphorical intents of George Grosz and Max Beckmann respectively. Read Entire Article about Artist Jorg Immendorff paintings and artwork at The Saatchi-Gallery http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jorg_immendorf.htm