Standarts

A.R. Penck (Ralf Winkler)

1970

An artist's book in which A.R. Penck prints large, rough‑edged blue pictograms across pages to reduce social gestures and signs to a compact, language‑like set of symbols.

A single page meets the eye framed by a hand‑drawn blue border and dominated by three chunky, brushlike marks—a round dot, a bold diagonal check, and blocky right‑angle strokes—their printed edges ragged and immediate.

Part of Penck's mid‑20th‑century project to invent a primitive‑modern pictographic vocabulary, this work links neo‑expressionist painting, graffiti‑like signmaking, and the artist‑book format to rethink how images can function as shorthand social language.

Palette

Art Terms

Artist’s book Illustrated book Pictograph Abstraction Gestural Print Monochrome Primitive art

Exhibitions

Drawing in Austria and Germany

1985

BERLINART 1961–1987

1987

Arp on Paper

1977

Published in Germany, 1923

1973