AR Penck - What goes through the emigrant's mind - 1987

AR Penck AR Penck

AR Penck - What goes through the emigrant's mind - 1987

Name: AR Penck - What goes through the emigrant's mind - 1987
Brand: Penck, A.R.
Price: 3750.0 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

With "What's on the Emigrant's Mind," A.R. Penck created a powerful, unflinchingly direct work of great political and personal intensity in 1987. The aquatint etching condenses existential experience, inner turmoil, and social friction into a visual language of immediate impact. As a rare, strictly limited work from an edition of only 30, it possesses significant art historical and collector value.

€3.750

Tax included.

Original artwork
Authenticity verified with certificate
Return policy

artist

AR Penck

studioKurt Zein Etching Workshop - Vienna

Technology & Printing Processes

Original aquatint etching with drypoint needle

Details

Year of origin1987

Size in cm: 63 x 69.5 image
Size in cm84.2 x 80 sheets

Condition: Good

Special features

Edition: 30 copies, here: No. 24 of 30

signature"ar. penck" in lead, bottom right!

ProvenancePrivate collection, Berlin

Authenticity & Guarantee

We guarantee the authenticity of this original print. The work is delivered with a written certificate of authenticity. All information regarding technique, date of creation, and provenance has been carefully verified.

Do you have a question?

Call us on 030 - 20165666
Write us an email: kontakt@antiquariatgaston.de

Shipping & Returns

Jedes Kunstwerk wird von uns sorgfältig geprüft, dokumentiert und individuell verpackt.

Der Versand erfolgt – abhängig von Größe und Beschaffenheit – per Paketdienst oder über spezialisierte Kunstlogistik.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass es sich bei unseren Arbeiten um originale Kunstwerke handelt. Rückgaben sind daher nicht aufgrund persönlicher Geschmacksentscheidungen möglich.

Sollte ein Werk jedoch beschädigt ankommen oder erheblich von der Beschreibung abweichen, bitten wir um umgehende Kontaktaufnahme, damit wir gemeinsam eine Lösung finden können.

Information about the work

Image description

The work unfolds in a tension-filled black-and-white structure that permeates the entire pictorial space. Roughly drawn marks, figures, and mask-like heads overlap, as if thoughts were simultaneously emerging, colliding, and disappearing. Scratching lines, dense black areas, and rhythmic repetitions create a raw, almost aggressive movement. Individual human silhouettes appear to stand, walk, or freeze, while abstract forms and symbols crisscross the background. The atmosphere is dense, restless, and intense, as if the inner pressure of the depicted subject could barely be contained.

Artistic context

This work was created in 1987, during a late phase of Penck's career, in which his visual world appears particularly dense and politically charged. After his emigration from East Germany, Penck repeatedly reflected on themes such as identity, power, conformity, and inner freedom. The aquatint etching with drypoint is ideally suited to his archaic, symbolic visual language, as it allows for both flat density and aggressive linework.What goes through the emigrant's mindThis work exemplifies this phase: an image poised between personal experience and universal message. The limited edition, the handwritten signature, and its creation in the renowned etching workshop of Kurt Zein underscore the print's value for discerning collectors.

AR Penck

A.R. Penck is one of the most important German artists of the post-war period and significantly shaped Neo-Expressionism. His work is characterized by a reduced, symbolic visual language reminiscent of prehistoric symbols, pictograms, and diagrams. Penck understood art as a means of social analysis and individual self-assertion. In painting, graphic art, and sculpture, he developed a distinctive visual system that continues to impress with its directness, political incisiveness, and timeless relevance.

magazine