Martin Kippenberger was one of the most influential German artists of the post-war generation and played an essential role in establishing aesthetic principles between the late 1970’s and 1990’s. Kippenberger's work, in the form of paintings, sculptures, and installations, often contained scathing commentaries on the art world and reactionary views on iconic art historical canons. His art practice can be defined as the stance of an individual who, through actions, decisions, created objects, and facts, constructed a whole that can be understood as provocative, yet which uncompromisingly represents the miserable reality of our everyday lives in a remarkably precise way. His work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; Serpentine Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Wien; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris;  Kunstverein, Munich; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; P.S. 1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Skupturenprojekt, Munster; Documenta, Kassel; Venice Biennale; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and many others. His work also features in many private and public collections.

Kippenberger's artistic practice is based on a sound knowledge of cultural and contemporary history, which he constantly appropriated, quoted and deconstructed to create something new. The works are imbued with current issues in society, politics, and culture, and reflect on how these have been present in the tradition of fine arts. Kippenberger's practice at first glance reflects a carefree dilettantism, but this is undoubtedly the artist's very deliberate and strategic way of distributing his artwork. Kippenberger experimented with different expressive media, and it is perhaps this combining and collaging that is one of his most distinctive expressions, opening numerous, sometimes controversial, possibilities of interpretation. He is best known for his paintings, created mainly in the period from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, which function as anti-paintings, as the artist questions the tradition of painting and the way in which it has been historically and ideologically subverted.