In Konrad Klapheck’s work comically absurd, sexually indicative and magnified cartoonlike everyday objects had found its depiction in a very strict, strong, vivid and stark style. This German graphic artist and painter have become famous for his Typewriters – repetitive series of monumental and ironized typing machines that he created in 1955; in a manner to which he is still persistently loyal, and although connected with pop art has actually been invented earlier when he was a 20 year old student.
Klapheck was born in Düsseldorf in 1935 as a child of two art history teachers at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he graduated under Bruno Goller in 1956. He started exhibiting in the late 50’s and spent time in Paris where he had contact with the circle of surrealist, even participated in their last show in the gallery L’Oeil in 1965. In the 70’s he was working on engraved plates and in the late 90’s he turned to painting portraits and figures, mostly of his friends, colleagues or celebrities. Later, he even started painting interior nudes that were based on old work with erotic and autobiographic elements. After 2004 he begins new series of paintings portraying jazz musicians and big bands, in which he wanted to highlight the solitude of the soloist in front of the crowd and the band. In 2009 he was invited to create the official poster for Roland Garros tournament.
Regarding Klapheck‘s art, it combines elements of realism, Surrealism, and Pop art. Realism can be traced in the choice of painting drills, sewing machines, clocks, water taps and showers, telephones, irons, shoes, keys, saws, and car tires – painted with obsessive precision. But despite that, objects in ominous forms are sinisterly isolated, magnified, ironically both anthropomorphized and architectural. The influence of other artists, for example Duchamp, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, is seen in his treatment of mechanical objects and the irony with which they are rendered. In his own words: My main weapons are humor and precision. Only the coldness of precision allows the translation of the fire in the soul, and only humor allows the translation of what we have seen. I must put no limits to my subjectivity in order to obtain objective canvases. All the enigmas and solutions of life are inside oneself.
During his long career, Klapheck exhibited worldwide one of the most prominent retrospective shows being at the Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 1974 and the latest Klapheck Paintings and Drawings at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf in 2013. He was a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 1979 until his retirement in 2002.
Featured image: Konrad Klapheck portrait photo
All images used for illustrative purposes only
Year | Exhibition Title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Derrière le rideau | Galerie Lelong, Paris | Solon | |
2016 | Untitled | Fair Art Basel | Group | |
2016 | Untitled | Fair Art Cologne | Group | |
2016 | Untitled | Levy at ARCO Madrid | Group | |
2015 | Untitled | Galerie Lelong at Art Basel in Miami Beach | Group | |
2015 | Untitled | Galerie Lelong at Art Basel | Group | |
2014 | Architect - Busdriver - Two bridges - 20 years Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst in Dresden | Kunsthalle in the Lipsius building, Dresden | Group | |
2014 | We - Acting in Concertn | Forum Klinger, Leipzig | Group | |
2014 | Friendly Takeover | MARTa, Herford | Group | |
2013 | Konrad Klapheck - The Squared Circle | Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL | Solo | |
2013 | Konrad Klapheck - Paintings and Drawings | Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf | Solo | |
2013 | Klapheck - paintings and drawings | Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf | Solo | |
2013 | Whatever. The Collection. 1968-2000 | New National Gallery, Berlin | Group | |
2013 | Dream-images. The Wormland gifting | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | Group | |
2013 | From Fantasy To Sobriety. Figurative Art From The Kemp Collection | Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2013 | The Desire for Freedom | Arte in Europe dal 1945 - Palazzo Reale, Milan | Group | |
2013 | The Big Art Exhibition Nrw Dusseldorf 2013 | Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2012 | XXX. Euro Europe exhibition - Seduction freedom. Art In Europe Since 1945 | German Historical Museum - Historical Museum, Berlin | Group | |
2012 | Image memory II | Academia Gallery - The New Collection, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2012 | Ghosts in the Machine | New Museum, New York City, NY | Group | |
2012 | Works peeked At And Picked Out By Jean-Jacques Lebel | Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin | Group | |
2012 | To the Museum of Modern Dreams | Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart | Group | |
2012 | I want to grasp things with the mind the way the penis is grasped by the vagina | 14 Davel, Cully | Group | |
2011 | Delicious blend | Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2011 | Artists Of The Gallery | Galerie Springer Berlin, Berlin | Group | |
2011 | Image trust | Art Museum Bochum, Bochum | Group | |
2011 | Hyper Real - Art and America around 1970 | Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen | Group | |
2011 | Great art exhibition NRW | Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2010 | Konrad Klapheck - Swing, Brother, Swing! | Galerie Lelong - Paris, Paris | Solo | |
2010 | 30 years Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek | Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek, Dusseldorf | Group | |
2010 | Hyper Real | Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation - MUMOK, Vienna | Group | |
2010 | Highs and lows - The Art of Graphic | Kunstverein Oerlinghausen, Oerlinghausen | Group | |
2009 | Konrad Klapheck - Swing, Brother, Swing! | Galerie Lelong - Zurich, Zurich | Solo | |
2007 | Konrad Klapheck - Prints and Paintings | Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm | Solo | |
2007 | Konrad Klapheck: Paintings | Zwirner & Wirth, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2006 | Konrad Klapheck | von Bartha Collection, Basel | Solo | |
2006 | Konrad Klapheck | Galerie Lelong - Zurich, Zurich | Solo | |
2005 | Konrad Klapheck | Galerie Lelong - Paris, Paris | Solo | |
2005 | KONRAD Klapheck | Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCS), Strasbourg | Solo | |
2004 | Konrad Klapheck - Tableaux | Mamco - musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva | Solo | |
2003 | Konrad Klapheck - machinery and people | LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn, Bonn | Solo | |
1975 | Konrad Klapheck | Kunsthalle Dusseldorf , Dusseldorf | Solo | |
1974 | Konrad Klapheck | BOZAR - Palais des Beaux-Arts / Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels | Solo | |
1974 | Konrad Klapheck | Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam | Solo | |
1959 | Konrad Klapheck | Schmela Gallery, Dusseldorf (closed, 2008) | Solo |