Markus Lüpertz is known as a painter and sculptor; here he is discovered as a poet, speaker and essayist. As old as his painting practice, the fruit of the same exigency carried with the same vigor, his work as a writer demands to be read separately - even though the writer in question affirms himself as a painter, body and soul.

This apparent paradox, among other "assertions", can be explored in depth in this selection of texts written over nearly sixty years, in which Lüpertz, as an adept of mystery, steps forward in turn under the mask of Orpheus, of the "philosopher's offspring" and of the maverick painter, asserting his truth with implacable constancy.