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Lot 143

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MARTIN KIPPENBERGER, Opel-Manta-Armaturenbrett (Op

Lot Passed

Opel-Manta-Armaturenbrett (Opel-Manta-dashboard), 1991. Wood. 29 × 131 × 31 cm (11 3/8 × 51 5/8 × 12 1/4 in). This work is unique from an edition of 10 differently coloured copies plus 1 artist’s proof. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
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PROVENANCE Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck
EXHIBITED Graz, Galerie Bleich Rossi, Fallen und fallen lassen – Merlin Carpenter, Ulrich Strothjohann, Martin Kippenberger, Michael Krebber, 5–17 October 1991 (another example exhibited)
LITERATURE Roberto Ohrt, Martin Kippenberger in Tirol: Sammlung Widauer, exh. cat.,Cologne: Walther König, pp. 76–79, 95 Karola Grässlin, Kippenberger Multiples, exh. cat., Graz: Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2003, p. 113 (another example illustrated)
Kippenberger points to the inherent tragedy of the everyday using the seemingly banal objects of our life and that make up popular culture. In this case, he uses a wooden replica of the dashboard of an Opel Manta which was destroyed in a car crash – the dashboard even carries the imprint of the driver’s skull. Alluding to the German stereotype of the Mantafahrer, or Manta-driver, Kippenberger asks a question typical of the many so-called Manta-jokes (roughly the equivalent of the British ‘Essex’ joke): “What goes through the head of an Opel Manta driver when he drives into a tree?”, and in doing so, he sardonically pokes fun at both the subject and teller of the joke.

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