Society of Deficiency 1990

Curator: Jorg Immendorff's "Society of Deficiency," painted in 1990, offers a potent commentary rendered in mixed media on canvas. The blend of acrylic and other materials allows for rich textural contrasts, doesn't it? Editor: Indeed. The initial impression is unsettling – the composition feels fractured, as if pieced together from disparate dreams or memories. There's an undeniable tension in the arrangement. Curator: The composition does present several layers of reality. Consider the egg, positioned prominently in the foreground—a potent symbol of potential and life juxtaposed against the darker, more fragmented imagery surrounding it. Also the recurring shapes which seem like tongues... Editor: Those shapes feel parasitic. Immendorff's loaded imagery here draws on primal fears and desires, and it cannot be accidental. But let’s turn to formal arrangement. Observe how he segments the canvas using shifts in color palette to define visual territories. This partitioning serves to both isolate and integrate different narrative threads. Curator: Precisely! The recurring shapes suggest a loss of language or an inability to fully communicate; they appear trapped between the layers. He often engaged with political themes and his works become social commentary. Do you believe those symbols convey cultural anxiety about social division or breakdown, something inherent to our nature? Editor: Absolutely. The cracked surface at the base and a written sheet seems to carry a heavy weight of repressed words; the piece reads to me as the deficiency is not a material one, but rather spiritual or ideological. Immendorff seems to be diagnosing a societal malaise. Curator: Furthermore, the human figure on the canvas presents with disembodiment; a broken shape of self, if you will. The lines articulate the figure’s form but, also a separation. Editor: This painting reminds us how Neo-Expressionism became such a force. We, as a public, hunger for these visceral depictions, rendered in this style and material combination; a style willing to engage difficult subjects without any romanticism. Curator: Indeed. I think Immendorff urges us to confront these 'deficiencies' not as flaws, but as areas for potential growth and renewal. Editor: I'm left thinking about the fractured reality that Jorg Immendorff presents here as an exploration of individual and societal challenges—a potent visual argument of its time.