(Klagenfurt, Austria, 1962 - )
1991
Mixed media on canvas
79 x 85 in. (200.7 x 215.9 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of Scott and Elaine Jaffe
2012.29
Created early in Kappl’s career, Mama Robert contains elements that have remained central in his work to the present. For Kappl, the emotional gesture is an essential part of his painting practice. Mama Robert is a frenetic gestural painting with a highly textured and varied surface. Composed of areas of built up paint and areas that have been scratched or incised to reveal underlayers, the painting also contains collaged paper, cardboard, found objects and scrawled text. The graffiti-based, messy and expressionistic aesthetic is packaged within a formally composed and highly dynamic painting, suggesting a melding of German expressionist and American pop sensibilities.