Over the course of his 20-year career, Martin Kippenberger (1953–1997) cast himself alternately as hard-drinking carouser and confrontational art-world jester, thrusting these personae to the forefront of his prodigious creativity. He was also very much a player in the international art world of the 1970s right up until his death in 1997, commissioning work from artists such as Jeff Koons and Mike Kelley, and acting as unofficial ringleader to a generation of German artists. Written by the artist’s sister, Susanne Kippenberger, and now available in paperback, this first English-language biography draws both from personal memories of their shared childhood and exhaustive interviews with Kippenberger’s extended family of friends and colleagues in the art world. Kippenberger gives insight into the psychology and drive behind this playful and provocative artist. Reviewing the hardcover edition in The New York Times, Roberta Smith wrote: “Ms. Kippenberger provides wonderful thumbnail portraits of the many key figures in her brother’s life, while using their reminiscences to create a finely diced composite oral history that makes palpable both his charming and his repellent sides.”
