der Eiermann & die Eierfrau

The egg as a symbol was a constant in Martin Kippenberger’s oeuvre from the early 1980s until his premature death in 1996, and arguably featured most famously in his iconic Eierbilder (Egg paintings) series of the mid 1990s. An inherently simple, yet also incredibly complex object, it symbolizes fertility and rebirth, absurdity and meaning, nature’s eternal circle of life and its fragility.

For the two etchings Der Eiermann (The Egg Man) and die Eierfrau (The Egg Woman) Kippenberger translates his lifelong fascination with the egg into the medium of printmaking. The two absurd, surrealistic portraits exemplify Kippenberger’s unique approach to his practice, which oscillates between mischievous absurdity and deep, fundamental symbolism.
The male figure in Der Eiermann is reminiscent of a knight who appears to be about to split an egg in half with his sword – an absurd act that is doomed to failure. The egg woman, about to take off her underpants, is covered by a surreal egg with a drawer integrated into it, so that it appears as if the egg itself had grown arms and legs. In combination, the tragic-comic figures embody the contrast between male and female and thus build a bridge to the symbolism of the egg as a symbol of fertility.