"La Serpent à Plumes / Gefiederte Schlange"
Signed A.R. Penck. Numbered 2/9. Foundry mark Schmärke Düsseldorf. The motif from 1985. Bronze, dark patina. Height 31 cm (including wood base 48.5 cm), length 63 cm, width 5 cm.
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne. Private collection, Stockholm. Acquired by the owner from above gallery.
Les Musées de la Ville de Paris, no. 7/9. Galerie Lelong, Paris.
A. R. Penck. Penck was born in Dresden in 1939, (dead in Zürich 2017) where he lived under the name of Ralf Winkler until 1980, when he was granted an exit visa. Through his contact with Michael Werner in Cologne, Penck gained international recognition in 1965, more than 15 years before he was able to leave East Germany. Penck has worked under a number of pseudonyms (T M, Mike Hammer, Alpha Ypsilon), all of which stand for the concepts on which he bases his work. A. R. Penck – from the geologist Albrecht Penck (1858-1945) – primarily represents information. The artist sees an analogy between the geologist’s study of rock strata and his own examination of the “layers of information in art history”.