Artist of the Day, September 6, 2025 : Ralf Winkler, a German painter, printmaker, sculptor (#2359)

Ralf Winkler (alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms Mike Hammer, T. M., Mickey Spilane, Theodor Marx, "a. Y." or just "Y") (1939 – 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculptor, and jazz drummer. A neo-expressionist, he became known for his visual style, reminiscent of the influence of primitive art.

Penck was born in Dresden, Germany. In his early teens, he took painting and drawing lessons with Jürgen Böttcher, known by the pseudonym Strawalde, and joined with him to form the renegade artists' group Erste Phalanx Nedserd [de] ("Dresden" spelled backward). The group sought artistic work without compromise. For this reason, their members refused to study at an academy. The group members were also denied membership in the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR. They, therefore, had to earn a living as workers or craftsmen. He later worked for a year as a trainee draftsman at the state advertising agency in Dresden. From 1955 to 1956, Winkler was a draftsman for the publicity agency DEWAG. Since 1956, he attempted but failed to gain admission to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts in East Berlin. 

In 1966, Winkler became a candidate to join the Association of Plastic Artists, now under the artistic pseudonym A. R. Penck. which was chosen after the geologist Albrecht Penck. Since 1969, he had increasingly problems with the Ministry of State Security of the GDR. His paintings were confiscated and his membership in the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR (VBK) was rejected.

Winkler was one of the founding members, in May 1971, together with Steffen Terk, Wolfgang Opitz and Harald Gallasch, of the artist group GAP, which existed until 1976. Since 1973, he worked under the pseudonyms Mike Hammer and TM. After serving the military service in 1974, he was awarded the Will Grohmann Prize, in 1975, by the Academy of Arts in West Berlin. By this time, the state security control over him also increased. In 1976, Penck met the West German painter Jörg Immendorff, with whom he would work together in the following years. In their work, they campaigned for the abolition of the inner German border.

On 3 August 1980, he moved to West Germany. He first lived in Kerpen, southwest of Cologne. After emigrating, Penck became one of the foremost exponents of new figuration, alongside Jörg Immendorff, Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. Their work was shown by major museums and galleries in the West throughout the 1980s. They were included in a number of important shows including the famous Zeitgeist exhibition in the Martin Gropius Bau museum and the New Art show at the Tate in 1983. 

An autodidact, he created in his paintings "worlds" and "experience spaces", filled with symbolic abbreviations. He used stick figures and graphic icons that seem reminiscent of cave paintings, Asian calligraphy and graffiti art. In the 1960s and 1970s, he created a series of paintings and sculptures that he called Standarts, a conflation of "standard" and "art", with an echo of the German word for banner or flag, Standarte. By this term, Penck understood an art form that used simple and archaic pictorial symbols, such as traffic signs or trademarks. In the 1980s, he became known worldwide for his paintings with pictographic, neo-primitivist imagery of human figures and other totemic forms. 

Penck's sculptures, although less known, evoke the same primitive themes as his paintings and drawings and use common materials, such as wood, bottles, cardboard boxes, cans, packing tape, tin and aluminum foil, wire and paste, all done with simplicity and spontaneity.

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Ralf Winkler

Untitled, 1967-68

Untitled, 1969

Untitled, 1972 from the portfolio Ur End Standart

Untitled, 1972 from the portfolio Ur End Standart

Untitled, Self-portrait, 1973

Eau de Cologne, 1975

Untitled, 1978

Untitled, 1978

Untitled (Standart) 1980

Untitled (Kopf) 1980–81

Untitled, 1980–81

Nightvision from First Concentration I, 1982

Kopf W., 1984

Piano Solo, 1985

Ilei, 1987

Transformer, 1987

X-Face Man 1, 1987

Romantischer Streit, 1989

Castle, 1990

Kontrolle, 1991 detail

Figur, 1995

Scorpio, 1995

Untitled, 1995

Perry Rhodan 1, 1996

Perry Rhodan 2, 1996

Return to the Central System, 1996

o.T. (for Charly), 1997

Advance, 2010

Opening, 2010

System - Problem - abstract, 2010

If Chance Permits, 2011

The Flow of Events, 2011