I Am a Berliner

Jacek Michalak: In 2010, we presented your solo exhibition at Atlas Sztuki. We borrowed the works from several collections, the most important being Dr Erich Marx’s. At the time, one of your paintings hung in the office of Germany’s then Vice-Chancellor, Dr Guido Westerwelle. The German newspaper “Bild” reported this, publishing a photograph of the Vice-Chancellor seated behind his desk with your painting, Jörg Immendorff’s sculpture of a monkey and Ottmar Hörl’s bird sculpture in the background. Many people can only dream of such achievements. Four years have passed. I know that you have sold a considerable number of works in recent years, so economically things are much better. What about artistically? What has happened in your life during this period?

Roman Lipski: Yes, I have sold many works over the past few years. Artistically, too, things are going well. I have developed and find myself in a different, new place. My paintings remain in the Marx Collection, and I enjoy a close friendship with Volker Schlöndorff and his wife Angelika. Germany’s former Vice-Chancellor now owns two of my paintings. He moved the work you mentioned from the Chancellery to his office at the Westerwelle Foundation in Berlin. After the Atlas Sztuki exhibition, my works were included in a group show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I showed several pieces in Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. In 2011, I showed at Atlas Sztuki again in The Marx Collection: A Selection, organised in collaboration with the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum. After Łódź, the exhibition travelled to the National Museum in Szczecin. I also exhibited in New Tendencies in Polish Painting 2 at the BWA Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz, followed by Myth and Melancholy at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum, the Bielska BWA Gallery and BWA in Jelenia Góra. My work returned to the United States in an exhibition organised by Alex Katz at the Colby Museum of Art in Waterville. Last year it was shown at the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul, as well as in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Osnabrück and Centro Cultural Andratx in Mallorca. Those were probably the most important group shows, although there were smaller presentations too. I had solo exhibitions at the Polish Institutes in Düsseldorf and Berlin, in Vienna, at Stefan Szydłowski Gallery in Warsaw, at the Genshagen Foundation, twice in Frankfurt am Main, and in Las Vegas and Munich. The galleries representing me during this period also showed my work at art fairs in Paris, Cologne and Zurich. I am more widely recognised today than I was four years ago. Things could be better, of course, but I am not complaining. The most important thing is that for four years I have lived from my art: I only paint and do nothing else to earn money.

J.M.: You are an artist who has succeeded through talent, persistence and hard work. You have no formal art education. On the one hand, as we mentioned, your work belongs to renowned collections such as the Marx Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Colby Museum of Art in Waterville and the Andratx Collection. On the other, you have no permanent relationship with any major contemporary art gallery. Recently you have been represented only by Ralf Dellert’s Sophisticated gallery in Munich. Is it not time to change that?

R.L.: It is slowly changing. We are talking on the eve of my beginning a collaboration with Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels. By deciding to work with the gallery, I am once again staking a great deal on a fresh start. I am signing an exclusive agreement, which is a major change in my life. I have never before been connected with a gallery in this way. I had galleries that represented me, and what they achieved was divided in accordance with our agreements, but I also had my own clients who contacted me directly. In the past I did not seek a relationship with a major gallery. I did not feel the need, and to some extent I did not feel up to it; perhaps I was also a little afraid of such a collaboration. Remember that I have no art education. A decade ago I did not think I would be able to make a living by painting. Yet I staked everything on one card and left my job so that I could devote myself to painting completely. The beginnings were difficult — I practically starved — but I succeeded. I simply needed, and still need, a little time to become accustomed to the reality around me. I decided the time had come for a change. I no longer want to handle the sale of my work.

J.M.: What do you expect from the new gallery you intend to join?

R.L.: I hope that as an artist represented by Roberto Polo Gallery I will be able to concentrate solely on painting.

J.M.: Are you not afraid that the Brussels gallery will want to mould you to fit its own format? Until now you have remained outside the artist–gallery relationship that formats an artist. You collaborated with galleries, of course, but were never represented by one exclusively.

R.L.: By nature, I trust people. Of course, from time to time I am disappointed. In my conversations with Roberto Polo before we began working together, I said that I intended to continue painting what I paint, and that was obvious to him. So I await this new chapter of my life with great optimism.

J.M.: How many works have you sold this year?

R.L.: Five so far.

J.M.: And the previous year?

R.L.: Eight.

J.M.: What about 2012?

R.L.: I do not remember exactly, but considerably more. In terms of sales, 2012 was a record year.

J.M.: How much does a work by Roman Lipski cost today?

R.L.: It varies with the size, from €20,000 to €50,000. I must admit, however, that I now paint many more small formats, which I practically never used to do.

J.M.: When a representative of a museum or another public institution approaches you, do you apply the same price list?

R.L.: That is a different situation; special rates apply. The National Museum in Szczecin recently bought a work from me. I was delighted and, of course, offered a special price. A different price list is also used for transactions with museum institutions in Germany. Many artists try very hard and often employ different stratagems to give their work to a museum so that they can boast of its presence in a museum collection.

J.M.: Following the most recent purchase, Szczecin now holds more of your works than any other city in Poland.

R.L.: Yes. Many years ago, Szczecin’s Zachęta was the first Polish institution to buy works from me; it acquired three. So there are now four of my works in Szczecin. Three other paintings belong to private individuals in Poland.

J.M.: You are Polish and have lived in Berlin for a quarter of a century. Your work has been shown several times in Poland, and you mentioned those exhibitions earlier, yet you are still not especially well known in Poland.

R.L.: Yes, that is true. Over the next few months, however, I have three opportunities to meet the Polish public. On 12 September, at Atlas Sztuki, I will show my work alongside the well-known Hungarian artist László Fehér. On 18 September, the National Museum in Szczecin will open my solo exhibition. A fortnight or so later, my paintings will be shown in the Bielska Jesień exhibition at the Bielska BWA Gallery. That does not alter the fact that I would like a greater presence in Polish exhibitions. Polish cultural institutions and curators, however, show little interest in my work. I have also heard it said that I am not a Polish artist.

J.M.: How do you see yourself? Are you a Pole, a European or perhaps a Berliner?

R.L.: I would most like to reply that I am an artist from Berlin, although that probably sounds a little strange.

J.M.: Why?

R.L.: I come from Poland and I am Polish, but where art is concerned I would rather not associate it with a particular place. On the other hand, if not for Berlin and my presence in the city, I probably would never have begun to paint. It was here that I found the courage to do so. I have lived in Berlin for twenty-five years; it is here that I met the people who supported and helped me. So I am a Berliner.

J.M.: You have already mentioned your forthcoming exhibitions in Poland. Where else will your work be seen in the near future?

R.L.: My solo exhibition opens at the Kraszewski Museum in Dresden on 24 September. I will show an entirely new series of works made especially for the occasion. The Dresden exhibition is curated by Agata Mendrychowska, who is also organising the Łódź show where my work will be presented alongside László Fehér’s. Earlier, in August, I will take part in a project in Berlin supported by the local station Radio Eins, Berlin and Brandenburg’s most popular radio broadcaster and part of RBB. Seventeen well-known Berlin-based artists, selected by the project’s curators, will present their work in a container travelling around Berlin. It will stop at fashionable and heavily frequented locations including Park am Gleisdreieck, Tempelhofer Feld, Torstrasse and Bikini. Each artist will present their work for one day. Radio Eins will report on the entire project as it unfolds.

J.M.: That covers this year. What are your plans for 2015?

R.L.: I visited New York in April. The trip resulted in an exhibition proposal from a good venue. Two months later came the offer from Roberto Polo Gallery. After some thought, I decided that choosing the gallery was the more forward-looking option. So I am still waiting for an exhibition in New York, but I know it is too early. I do not want to reveal my exhibition plans for 2015. Above all, I want to devote the first half of next year to painting.

*Beeskow, 16 July 2014