Provenance: Edition Copenhagen. Acquired at an exhibition here by the present owner.

Galerie Michael Werner has kindly confirmed that the work is registered in their archive of works by A. R. Penck.

“Having risen to fame during the early '80s, Penck was part of a wave of painters coming out of Germany who received acclaim in New York. His '80s paintings are recognizable for their vibrantly colored, energetically arranged compositions that incorporate what Penck termed Standart, a fake alphabet of sorts that the artist designed. To contemporary eyes, they evoke Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat's graffiti-inspired canvases, but Penck himself didn't consider his work to take its cues from street art. Instead, Penck often looked to other art-historical sources, notably prehistoric art and German Expressionist prints.” (Alex Greenbeerg, Artnews, March 5, 2017).