In his search for a universal sign language, Penck developed a very own fascinating artistic expression that moves somewhere between a strict, complicated system inscrutable from the outside and anarchy or expressive, gestural painting that is far from any sense of logic. In an interview with Florian Illies, Penck's artist friend Georg Baselitz explains: “He invents his alphabet, drawing from the depths of art and history, but still entirely his own. No one but him can read it. But we can look at it - and feel it [..] You don't have to ask why?” The abstract figures, symbols, and signs have no spatial reference, they seem to just float in the picture, and there is no real spatial perspective. Stick figures with large penises and armed with spears, guns or arrows and, as is the case in the present work, usually in some kind of confrontation with one or more other symbols like wheels, spirals or emblems emerged in the 1960s. In a nutshell, Penck's pictorial language consists of abstract figures, symbols, and signs. He developed a register of signs based on the idea that the reception of signals leads to a transformation into feelings and actions. As the artist put it in an essay: “Signs control behavior. Information controls behavior. Signs prompt or inhibit impulses, they cause arousal […] The pragmatic and magic art of the Ice Age man leads me to assume that the origin of art contained initial findings on sign research that were later forgotten” (quoted from Dieter Koepplin, in: Klaus Gallwitz (ed.) Gemeinschaftsbilder von H. Gallasch, W. Opitz, A. R. Penck, Terk, Dresden 1971-1976, ex. cat., no page).
By universalizing the pictorial language into a sign language, Penck offers the viewer the largest projection screen possible, allowing for a verification of the content based on their own experience, thus creating individual realities. He aims to reduce his works to a few unambiguous signs so clear that anyone can recognize and imitate them. Hence Penck developed this unmistakable pictogram style to clarify complex relationships and existential themes. Over several years, he developed a new visual language that followed its own logic. Penck's music is just as free and wild as his paintings. In addition to visual arts, he had a wide range of interests, including music, science, film, performance, and poetry. For many years, he played drums and piano in the extremely successful free jazz band “TTT” (“Triple Trip Touch”). Just as is the case in his paintings, his music is also characterized by long experimental improvisations of raw and unfiltered beauty. Penck and Frank Wollny recorded several albums with “TTT”, including with Frank Wright, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Jeanne Lee, and Alan Silva. Penck designed album covers and concert posters in his unique visual language. Freedom and wildness characteristic of Penck's entire oeuvre is evident in “Free Rock A”. While his pictures are difficult to decipher, one just has to develop a feeling for them. Penck has not given us the code for his sign language, as that would kill their magic, instead we have to find the right mindset to discover their meaning. And that is, above all, what makes his works so fascinating. [SM/MvL]