(Dortmund 1953–1997 Vienna)
Untitled, from the series of the “Fred the Frog”, 1989/90, signed and dated on the reverse Kippenberger 90, oil on canvas, 240 x 200 cm, on stretcher

Provenance:
From an Austrian Collection

Literature:
Martin Kippenberger, Fred the frog rings the bell once a penny two a penny hot cross burns, Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne 1991, artist’s book, p. 37, ill.

‚One just tries to do justice to everything. One wants to reach the people. In fact, one is a small priest, isn‘t one? So, somehow, parson - parson? Pastor - I‘m a pastor. And pastor means translated... Shepherd. Yeah. And somehow I have something like it, haven‘t I? I‘m the holy Saint Martin.‘
(The artist quoted in ‚Interview with the Artist‘, Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective, exh. cat., Los Angeles, 2008, p. 320)

Untitled of Fred the Frog series painted in 1989/1990 forms a part of one of Martin Kippenberger’s most important and outstanding series that was created between 1988 and 1991 in Los Angeles.

Who is Fred the Frog? In sculpture and painting he is a frog on a cross.
In the sculptural version, Fred is nailed to wooden elements that recall stretcher bars, a traditional attribute of the artist, holding a beer mug in one hand and an egg in the other.
In the paintings the act of crucifixion is clearly depicted in some of them, in others, like in the present work, Fred is a white swathe, hidden in the G of “Gefühle”.
Fred the Frog is one of the artist’s most celebrated alter ego’s. Kippenberger has shown himself as Fred on a cross with its tongue hanging out and wonky eyes exposed for all the world. Fred the Frog an absurd cartoonish character who recalls the Frog Prince from the tales of the Brother Grimm. The provocative image of the crucified, ridiculous frog awaiting his release shows Kippenberger’s problematic relationship with his status as an artist. The artist by creating and showing his works, is placed in a position of exposure and vulnerability, an act of bravery and self-sacrifice.
The present work is complex and functions with its direct confrontation with the viewer.
Tones of red and blue form a raster and a background for the words Witz (joke), Effekt (effect), Gefühle (feelings), Bild (painting) and Anschauung (viewing).
The words written in different typography lettering invite the viewer to look, to feel, to reflect, to laugh…
Hidden in the G of “Gefühle” is Fred the Frog on the cross. The lower right-hand half of the work shows an egg with a gleaming yolk combined with hand and thumb, the egg is the symbol of fertility and life, the hand is the source of creativity, while the upper part shows a richly layered impasto of white and red which appear to deface the image. On top yellow oil paint flows down the canvas, and the streaks of paint again refer to the egg.
Frog, crosses, eggs in various states and other figures appear throughout the Fred the Frog series and probe the transformative power of the artist.
“The frogs, fried eggs and crosses are not only witty, pop – cultural signs and familiar personal metaphors but also represent a certain versatility. Transformation can take form of transfiguration, fairytale or changing life situation: the ugly frog harbors a handsome man, the egg has culinary, art historical and reproductive aspects, and the cross, of course, is the most ancient symbol of suffering transformed into triumph.” […](Nach Kippenberger, Eva Meyer – Hermann und Susanne Neuburger (Mumok - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven), Schlebrügge.Editor, 2003, Vienna, Page 128.)
The present work was exhibited the year after it was created in Kippenberger’s playfully-titled show: Fred the Frog rings the bell once a penny two a penny hot cross burns. Kippenberger published a book with illustrations from the Fred the Frog series together with an anthology of lyrical lamentations, predominantly of seventeenth century English origin. Robert Ohrt‘s essay First the Feet from the 2005 Taschen book Kippenberger gives some background on the Fred the Frog series and the sculptures‘ titles, „The book accompanying the first exhibition with Fred is the most beautiful collection of texts that Martin ever published, poems that were spoken down from the Cross, in the final seconds, at the moment in which release or redemption only comes again in the familiar fashion […]“ For the present work Kippenberger chose a poem by John Donne, ‘Witchcraft by a Picture’, ”But now I have drunke thy sweet salt teares,/And though thou poure more I´ll depart ;/My picture vanish´d, vanish feares,/ That I can be endamag´d by that art: […]
(Fred the frog rings the bell once a penny two a penny hot cross burns”, Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Max Hetzler, 1991, Cologne, pp. 36-37)