The Large Spoon
Markus Lüpertz
German, born 1941
1982
A large oil painting in which Lüpertz plants a monumental, almost silhouetted spoon at the center of a turbulent, painterly tableau to make an everyday object carry mythic and theatrical weight.
Seen up close and at scale, the dark diagonal spoon dominates while looping, biomorphic brushstrokes—red, yellow, blue and black—swirl like fish and ribboned forms, forcing the eye to ride the painting's restless, densely worked surface.
A key example of postwar Neo‑Expressionism, the work reasserts figurative, symbolic painting—using ordinary objects as anchors—to revive emotional intensity and mythic resonance after decades of abstraction.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
6' 7 3/8" x 10' 10 1/2" (201.6 x 331.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Anne and Sid Bass Fund and gift of Agnes Gund
Accession
284.1986
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
