Markus Lüpertz

MARKUS LÜPERTZ (Liberec, present-day Czech Republic, 1941).
“Parsifal,” from the series “Männer ohne Frauen-Parsifal,” 1995.
Lithograph, print no. 40/75.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 76 x 56.5 cm.

“Men Without Women—Parsifal” is one of Markus Lüpertz’s most significant series, created between 1993 and 1997. The series brings together paintings and sculptures centered on intensely expressive male faces, often depicted in a melancholic or weeping pose. Inspired by Richard Wagner’s opera *Parsifal* and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval poem *Parzival*, the series reflects on themes such as heroism, vulnerability, suffering, and redemption, reinterpreting these literary and musical references through the artist’s characteristic Neo-Expressionist style.

Markus Lüpertz is a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, considered one of the most influential figures in European art of the second half of the 20th century. After moving to Germany as a child, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krefeld and began to develop his own pictorial language in the 1960s. His work, associated with German Neo-Expressionism, reaffirms the value of painting through compositions of great material and gestural force, in which abstraction, figuration, and classical tradition engage in dialogue. Throughout his career, he has explored mythological, historical, and literary themes, reinterpreting references from Western culture from a contemporary perspective. In addition to his artistic practice, he served as director of the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts from 1988 to 2009, establishing himself as a key figure in the renewal of contemporary German painting.