(born in Antwerp in 1940)
Untitled, 1972, four sketches for a flying machine, one signed, dated Panamarenko 72, ballpoint in various colours and pencil on paper, 23 x 30 cm and 30 x 23 cm, all parts framed, (4), (PP)

Provenance:
Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp
The Helga and Walther Lauffs Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 1973)
from an Collection, USA

Exhibitions:
Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, on long-term loan, 1973-2008;
Lucerne, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Panamarenko. Automobile und Flugmaschine, September 30 – November 5, 1972, traveled to Düsseldorf, Staatliche Kunsthalle, January – February 1973, and Stuttgart, Würtembergischer Kunstverein, February – March 1973, exh. cat., no. 47, n.p, ill. (only drawing 2);
Bonn, Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Zeichnungen der 50er bis 70er Jahre aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld. Graphische Sammlung und Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs, March 12 – April 27, 1980, exh. cat., no. 98, pp. 66-67, ill. (only drawings 2 and 3);
Leverkusen, Erholungshaus der Bayer AG, Zeichnungen 1950-1990 aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld und der Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs, April 14 – May 19, 1996, traveled to Nuremberg, Kunsthalle, July 10 – August 25, 1996, and Krefeld, Museum Haus Lange and Museum Haus Esters, September 8 – November 3, 1996, exh. cat., no. 147, pp. 162-163, ill. (only drawings 1 and 3)

Literature:
Gerhard Storck, et al., Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld. Amerikanische und europäische Kunst der sechziger und siebziger Jahre (Krefeld: Krefelder Kunstmuseen, 1983), no. 255, p. 235;
Hans Theys, Panamarenko (Brussels: Montagne de Miel, 1992), no. 100, p. 160.
Alexandra Whitney, ed., The Helga and Walther Lauffs Collection (Göttingen and New York: Steidl Zwirner & Wirth, 2009), Vol. I, pp. 264-265, ill., and Vol. II, no. 197, pp. 165-166, ill. (one drawing)

At the outset of his career, Belgian artist Panamarenko (b. 1940) developed a vast series of experimental flying machines. Inspired by the flight of birds, insects, and existing man-powered aircrafts, his extra-worldly models and prototypes translate the artist’s obsessive exploration of free movement, unhindered by the laws of gravitation. In preparation for his imaginary airships, Panamarenko makes countless drawings and sketches, combining varying designs with technical inscriptions. To serve his speculative visions, Panamarenko borrows and distorts the visual vocabulary of scientific research and engineering, as is illustrated in this suite of four drawings.