Markus Lüpertz is one of the best known contemporary German artists; he is often classified as a 'Neo Expressionist'. After having studied at the Werkkunstschule in Krefeld, he went to Berlin in 1962 as a freelance artist, where he started so-called 'Dithyrambic Painting'. For him, this style of painting was a form, but also an expression of his artistic passion, as he wrote in his manifesto 'Art That Gets in the Way. Dithyrambic Manifesto' from 1966. In 1970, Lüpertz was awarded the Villa Romana prize, Florence. From 1976 to 1987, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. He created his first sculptures in 1981, and they soon occupied an important place in his oeuvre. Nevertheless, the versatile artist also made stained-glass windows for the cathedral in Nevers as well as opera stage settings and costumes, and authored poems en passant. In 1986, he accepted a chair at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, became its director in 1988 and ran it for twenty years. In 1990, he was awarded the Lovis Corinth Prize of the Künstlergilde Esslingen.
