Christian Adam (1941-2021), The Little Mermaid, 1987

Christian Adam (1941 Oppeln - 2021 Heidelberg), The little mermaid, 1987. Offset print, 16.5 x 13 cm (image), 40 x 29.5 cm (sheet size), with the artist's ligature “Aci” in pencil, dated “[19]87”, numbered “17/50” and titled “Die kleine Seejungfrau ([Zustand] III)”.
- upper sheet edge minimally dusty, otherwise in very good condition



- The Little Mermaid as a Sardine -


In skilfully drawn contours, which seem to have been thrown in, we see a king in his four walls, under which the little mermaid seems to be wrapped around the opener of a sardine can. Our beautiful image of a mermaid is humorously taken ad absurdum. At the same time, she remains an object of desire for the king, which is counteracted by the cross above the mermaid. 



About the artist

Christian Adam studied from 1962 to 1967, initially at the Cologne Werkkunstschule under Karl Marx, later at the Städelschule in Frankfurt under Walter Hergenhahn and finally at the Munich Art Academy under Karl Kaspar and Georg Meistermann.
Since 1978, Adam has been working on his 'MBO Cycle', where the abbreviation 'MBO' stands for Macrobiological Organisms. These are complex, balanced pictorial worlds for which the artist has developed a special creasing technique.
He has also been involved in numerous 'Art in Architecture' projects and has created humorous, multi-faceted drawings and graphics. 

“Disorder is not the absence of order, but a clash of unrelated individual orders.”

Christian Adam