A. R. Penck, born Ralf Winkler in Dresden in 1939, is a prominent and influential German artist. Since the beginning of his career, Penck has pursued an intense interest in the relationship between individuals and society, and the political and social structures that govern them. He has been fueled by studies in information theories, cybernetics, science fiction, behavioral science, and political and social philosophies. These subjects have been manifested in his painting since 1963, when Penck formulated the basis of his mature style while living in East Berlin. In an environment where any art created outside the socialist realist mold could be called subversive, Penck developed a painting style where abstract imagery could render political and existential realities legible. He did this by perfecting a universal pictorial language made up of elementary signs and symbols, often primitive in their appearance, which anyone could understand and reproduce. Untitled (Figur Mit Ausgestreckten Armen) (1966), one of the earliest works on view, depicts a male figure whose arms extend directly from his head across the canvas. Executed in simplified lines and fleshy tones, this work is an unusually naturalistic rendering of a motif that would become standard for Penck – the abstracted male figure, a symbol of individual autonomy and vulnerability. In later paintings like Untitled (Standart) (1970), Penck pared his figure down to a simple outline, adding other pictorial signs and emblems against a neutral background. Penck heightened the legibility and symbolic content of his graphically rendered motifs by gradually stripping it of its tonal relationships. Overall, Penck exercised a strong influence by addressing political and social problems in his pictures and by formulating models or concepts that gave a general, comprehensive view of the world.