Martin Kippenberger was the true bad boy of German art in the 1980s, taking everything to excess and dying as he lived his art at the age of 44. He could draw like an Old Master, but he pushed the boundaries of what painting could be . In 1988, he was inspired by a photograph of Picasso looking like an ancient hero, yet dressed only in his white underpants. The emperor indeed has no clothes! Kippenberger painted a self-portrait in the guise of Picasso- an act of sheer bravado that forced one to question the status quo of art history. Christie's is selling the most famous of Kippenberger's Picasso "self-portraits". Previously owned by the artist Jeff Koons, the work is consigned by renowned publisher Benedikt Taschen, who was a catalyst between the two artists. Here you can see the work as it was recently displayed in Taschen's Berlin apartment. At Christie's it will be paired with Jeff Koons's iconic sculpture of "Louis XIV" – a proxy self-portrait by Koons as the sun king. In the mid-1980s, Koons and Kippenberger were friends and were respectively considered the leading forces in the vital Cologne and New York art scenes. Koons pursued concepts of luxury, and Kippenberger degradation. Both "self-portraits" are classics of their age.

A photo posted by Brett Gorvy (@brettgorvy) on Apr 20, 2015 at 4:01pm PDT