The Best Wurst

Nothing goes with Juergen Teller’s stark photographs like a good bratwurst. Or so thought Lehmann Maupin when, in honor of Teller’s Bavarian origins, the New York gallery invited street vendor Rolf Babiel to dish out his award-winning wieners at a recent opening. Those who managed to maneuver around the queue at Babiel’s Hallo Berlin Sausage Cart sipped German beer while pondering the dual poles of despair and luxury depicted in Teller’s “Ukraine” series. Much to Babiel’s surprise, gallery-goers like the one picture lost their cool over his mouthwatering wursts. “I tried to see the show, but people got impatient about the sausages,” he says. “They were tearing my hair out.”

"The Best Wurst" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.