Aschenbecher (Ashtray)

A functional ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts sits atop a laminated book bearing the artist's own name, rendered in cast synthetic resin in a gesture of sardonic self-mythologizing. Kippenberger blurs the boundary between art object and everyday detritus, elevating the banal residue of vice and leisure into a monument of casual irreverence. The work embodies his signature wit, implicating his own celebrity and excess while poking fun at the solemnity of the artist's legacy.