No problem - Martin Kippenberger
In 1986, Martin Kippenberger inscribed the margins of a 180 by 150 cm large canvas with “We Don't Have Problems with Friends, We Sleep with Them” in striking capital letters. In the center, he placed a crutch on a black background before a second, unidentifiable object. There is no identifiable connection between the text and the image. The text does not explain the image in the center, nor does the object establish a narrative connection to the text. The games are on, as Kippenberger's opened the doors to the interpretation of his pictorial cosmos. Bordering on incomprehensibility, however, human curiosity with its learned, art-historical thought patterns soon falls out of step. Kippenberger's thoughts and associations are too complex; the confusion and deception he creates are too unconventional to make sense of the content from the depiction alone.

A glance at the series of eight works entitled “No Problems” and the simultaneously published accompanying pamphlet “No Problem · No Problème,” co-authored with his artist friend Albert Oehlen, quickly reveals a much broader context. Using titles such as “We Don't Have Problems with People Who Look Exactly Like Us, Because They Get Our Pain” or “Nous n'avons pas de problèmes avec les dépressions, tant qu'elles ne se mettent pas à être en vogue “ the viewer eventually realizes that the key to understanding these works must be hidden in the titles and the single word “Problem,” which is the series' recurrent theme. Despite using English and French for the catchphrases, he addresses "a very German phenomenon and problem approach.” It is ultimately to be understood as Martin Kippenberger's comment on the “status quo of Germany dealing with its past” in the 1980s, as explained in the recently published second volume of the catalogue raisonné (Gisela Capitain, Lisa Franzen (eds.), Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde. Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Two 1983-1986, Cologne 2023, p. 437). Saying “I don't have a problem with it, but..” is commonly used in German and, despite all tolerance, implies a problem that still exists and has not been overcome. Against the background of the Historikerstreit (Historians' Dispute) of the late 1980s and the subsequent recognition of shared responsibility for the war, Martin Kippenberger's seemingly innocent and humorous take on an everyday topic suddenly stands in a completely new light relevant to society as a whole.

The series was first exhibited in 1986, the year it was created, at Galerie Christoph Dürr in Munich, the capital of the National Socialist movement. The exhibition poster was accompanied by a drawing of Adolf Hitler in uniform with a swastika and raised index finger. According to the authors of the catalogue raisonné, this also demonstrates a unique ability on Kippenberger's part, who understood “how to link place and history with his work in terms of content” (catalogue raisonné vol. II, p. 437). With each piece of background information on the series “No Problem,” our understanding of the content of this highly complex and sophisticated work grows, and the initial confusion disappears. Nothing here is as it seems, yet – in true Kippenberger style – everything there is to say about German society in the 1980s has been said. [AR]