Born in Munich in 1941, Lambert Maria Wintersberger is one of the few German artists to respond directly to pop art. Like his older American colleagues, he focuses on the world of advertising and consumption while concentrating on cosmetic images. He wrests a significance from this visual world that is literally painful. Monstrously oversized body parts, such as mouths and fingers, are gouged and gored by staples and nails: the perpetrator of this violence remains anonymous, as do the bodies and figures themselves.

The gloomy atmosphere of these bigger-than-life images is enhanced by the soft, supple forms and elegantly coordinated hues that stand in such stark contrast to the brutal content portrayed. Wintersberger caused quite a stir with these pictures between 1965 and 1974, before they were superseded by an expressively gestural form of painting that anticipated the works of the so-called “Jungen Wilden.”

The exhibition at the Kunstfoyer focuses primarily on Wintersberger’s pop art period.