Three Star Books

TISCH TABLE TABLE, 2008, by Jonathan Monk, is a work that looks like a table for reading or leaving books. It's an adaptation and, in a certain sense, copy, of a table-shaped sculpture by Martin Kippenberger called Modell Interconti, 1987. Kippenberger’s piece was constituted by a 1972  Gerhard Richter painting used as the table-top. The odimensions are repeated identically in the version by Monk.  Kippenberger’s table sounds lik a chain of hotels. Monk’s table, in English, German and French, is named after the game of pingpong.
 Both titles are keys to the work of each artist. Kippenberger made much art in the neutral interiors of hotel rooms. Monk plays a fast game of table-tennis with the work of other artists. The Richter painting in Monk’s table is replaced with an original artwork (a poster) by Kippenberger as the table-top. The poster is from an exhibition in Germany, in which Kippenberger had himself photographed standing like Joseph Beuys.  Monk refers to the German artist and his irreverent gestures with a great deal of respect, and slightly tongue-in-cheek. An original (painting) is substituted by a multiple (poster), and becomes a multiple, by Monk, and Three Star Books.