This Band is Playing on Luxus
- Artist: Martin Kippenberger
- Date: 1979
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 355 x 216 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “This Band is Playing on Luxus” by Martin Kippenberger. Created in 1979 as a lithograph on paper, the poster was a promotional flyer for the first single from Kippenberger’s punk band Grugas. In the photograph the four members sit in a low‑brow, almost candid pose – Kippenberger himself, Eric Mitchell, Akim Schaechtele, and Christine Hahn – all staring straight at the viewer.
Kippenberger was known for producing over a hundred and seventy‑eight posters in his career, and this one is an early example of his penchant for blending advertising formats with subversive art. The stark, bold typeface and the direct, almost confrontational image echo the energy of the late‑70s Berlin punk scene, where Kippenberger, already an established painter and sculptor, was also managing a performance venue and running a collaborative studio that echoed the spirit of Warhol’s Factory.
This work captures that moment of rebellion and collaboration, turning a simple band‑poster into a statement about art, music, and the blurred lines between them.
See it in person
This Band is Playing on Luxus is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
