Lambert Maria Wintersberger
Doppelfingersitu­ationen

a) Double-ended finger – tied up
Pink foam rubber, plexiglass, rope, metal
75 × 35 × 20 cm
Edition of 12

b) Double-ended finger – press object
Pink foam rubber, plexiglass, metal
75 × 35 × 20 cm
Edition of 12

c) Double-ended finger – part of electric circuit
Pink foam rubber, plexiglass, electric circuit, plastic cover
65 × 26 × 18 cm
Edition of 12

The painter Lambert Maria Wintersberger participated in an exhibition at Galerie Block for the first time in 1967, together with KH Hödicke, Bernd Koberling, and Markus Lüpertz. Wintersberger in particular had already made a name for himself in Berlin at that time with his “cosmetic images.” His paintings show excerpts of disproportionate body parts, often fingers and thumbs, whose injuries, constrictions, and tensions initially seem to disappear in the subtle depiction in delicate pastel tones and aesthetically smooth and objective perfection. In his own unique way, Wintersberger combines elements of hard-edge painting and the visual worlds of Pop Art, thus responding to the contemporary worlds of consumerism and advertising, especially cosmetics, in which he recognizes the real and metaphorical conditioning of human beings and makes it visible in his painting.
Also relevant in this context is the limited edition Doppelfingersituationen (Double Finger Situations), which will be presented in the fall of 1968 in the solo exhibition Lambert M. Wintersberger. Sommerproduktion 1968: Bilder und Objekte (Lambert M. Wintersberger. Summer Production 1968: Pictures and Objects) at Galerie Block. The editioned object Doppelfinger, which appeared in three different versions and was produced by the company Poro-Plast, consists of an oversized double finger made of pink-colored foam rubber with inserted Plexiglas surfaces as fingernails, which are painted in various shades of red. Similar to the approach in painting, the object Doppelfinger is also subjected to pain: depending on the version, it is tied up, crushed, or electrified. A review of the exhibition in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describes the objects as follows: “A visual artistic reference to the theme of torture could hardly be more subtle, but also more sophisticated: the smooth surrealism of a ‘double finger’ is combined with the substantially intrinsic knot rope. The recommended association – the helpless flesh subjected to torture – sets in, and with it the shudder. In two further objects (an electrified “double finger” and one pressed between screw pieces), Lambert Maria Wintersberger – a moralist who seeks to avoid the well-trodden paths of communicating inhuman behavior – varies his gruesome subject matter. Together with new images, he is exhibiting the “double fingers,” produced in a limited edition of twelve, at the René Block Gallery in Berlin until October 10.”¹
Text: Birgit Eusterschulte

¹ C.B., “Tortur. L. M. Wintersberger in Berlin,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (October 4, 1968).