Michael
Krebber

Before moving to Karlsruhe to study under Markus Lüpertz, and then to Berlin, Michael Krebber cut his teeth in the vibrant art scene of Cologne—where he was born—between the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time, the city was a hub for the burgeoning contemporary art market and a crossroads for figures on the verge of achieving international renown—gallery owners (Rudolf Zwirner, Michael Werner, Max Hetzler, among others) and artists (Sigmar Polke, Martin Kippenberger, for whom Krebber would later become an assistant after having previously worked as an assistant to Georg Baselitz). It was then that Krebber began his exploration of the gaps between the creation of a work and its appropriation, between an outrageously popular culture and a boldly asserted aestheticism, between the sublimation of the medium of painting and its critical suspension, and between self-reflexivity and doubt. His practice thus became a pivotal link in the reevaluations of the artwork throughout the 20th century, especially in the fields of ready-mades and abstraction.