The artist does not see himself as a Pop artist. Nor does he think the identification is reflective of his true concerns. He states: “I didn’t think of myself as a Pop artist. So, I continued to explore what I thought were, pretty much, formal realist problems from my perspective, even though they were things which were common objects.”

In the 18th century, German-speaking lands were a patchwork of smaller states within the Holy Roman Empire. Artists who worked at the many ducal, royal, and ecclesiastical courts were part of a network kept in motion by personal contacts and a lively exchange…