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From the Nose Drops Misery into Your Porcelain

Date
1984
Material
Oil on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
each: 35 1/2 × 29 1/2 in. (90.2 × 74.9 cm)
framed (each): 37 in. × 31 1/8 in. (94 × 79.1 cm)
as installed: 75 in. × 13 ft. 7 1/2 in. (190.5 × 415.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Betsy Millard, the Earl and Betsy Millard Collection
Rights
© Estate of Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
Object Number
60:2003a-j
NOTES
In this multi-panel painting, Martin Kippenberger mixed references to fine and commercial art, politics, and nursery rhymes. In the center panel of the bottom row, the artist combined objectionable language with an illustration of a baseball bat encased in glass. Known for his biting provocations, Kippenberger filled his art with irony and satire. In this panel, the artist appears to incite potential acts of violence and promote the stereotyped role of the male aggressor. Kippenberger united disparate imagery in a painterly hodge-podge that reflects Germany’s increasingly complex cultural landscape near the end of the Cold War.
Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany [1]

- 1985
Metro Pictures, New York, NY, USA, consigned from Galerie Max Hetzler [2]

1985 - 2020
Earl Millard (d.1996) and Betsy Millard, St. Louis, MO, purchased from Metro Pictures [3]

2003 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Betsy Millard [4]


Notes:
[1] Betsy Millard indicated on the "Information for Appraisals" worksheet completed in May 2004 that Galerie Max Hetzler was a former owner/dealer of the work [SLAM document files].

[2] Galerie Max Hetzler did consign works to Metro Pictures [email in SLAM document files]; however, it is unclear whether Metro Pictures officially owned the work since Max Hetzler asked Betsy Millard in a 2002 letter if she still owned the Kippenberger she purchased through his gallery [letter in SLAM document files].

[3] Betsy Millard indicated on the "Information for Appraisals" worksheet filled out in May 2004 that the Millards purchased the painting from Metro Pictures in 1985 [worksheet in SLAM document files].

[4] Deed of Partial Gift dated 2003, and Deed of Gift dated December 7, 2020 [SLAM closed document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 3, 2003, and December 7, 2020.

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