Oil on canvas. Signed and dated on the reverse. 100 x 300 cm. [KA].
• A prime example of Karin Kneffel's masterful combination of reality and illusion. • The large format allows for the fascinating sensation of intense immersion. • Shown in several solo museum exhibitions, most recently in “Im Augenblick,” Max Ernst Museum Brühl, 2022. • Kneffel taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 2008 to 2022. • Kneffel's paintings are part of renowned public collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, and the Olbricht Collection, Essen. Listed on the artist's official website. We are grateful to Prof. Karin Kneffel for her kind support in cataloging this lot. LITERATURE: Wilhelm Werthern, Karin Kneffel, in: Le Monde diplomatique, German edition, January 26, 2020, p. 8. Thomas Hirsch, Karin Kneffel, in: Künstler in Düsseldorf. 80 Beiträge, edition biograph and Salon Verlag, Cologne 2007, p. 248.
Karin Kneffel, Galerie manus presse, Stuttgart, 2005, p. 17. Karin Kneffel. Verführung und Distanz, Ulmer Museum, January 28 - March 26, 2006; Sinclair-Haus, Altana Kulturforum, Bad Homburg, April 7 - June 18, 2006; Mönchehaus-Museum für moderne Kunst, Goslar, July 16 - December 24, 2006, cat. no. 1 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel. Haus am Stadtrand, Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, October 18, 2009 - January 17, 2010, p. 13 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel 1990-2010, Kunsthalle Tübingen, May 1 - July 11, 2010, cat. no. 94 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel, La ventana y el espejo, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Gas Natural Unión Fenosa, October 16, 2014 - February 8, 2015, p. 26. Karin Kneffel. Still, Kunsthalle Bremen, June 22 - Sept. 29, 2019; Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, October 12, 2019 - March 8, 2020, pp. 22f. (illustrated) Karin Kneffel. Im Augenblick, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, May - August 28, 2022, pp. 118-199 (illustrated)
Private collection, Hesse (2005, Galerie manus presse, Stuttgart)
Her precise and technically skilled painterly work has earned Karin Kneffel a place among the most important contemporary German painters. Her paintings walk the line between reality and illusion, playing with memories, locations, and art historical symbols. Kneffel's virtuoso layering offers the viewer insights into complex narratives and invites individual interpretations. After being a master student of Gerhard Richter at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the 1980s, Kneffel quickly gained recognition for her astonishingly realistic animal portraits, fruit paintings, and spatial images. The work “Untitled,” 2004, which was shown in, among others, the 2006 traveling exhibition “Verführung und Distanz” (Seduction and Distance), is the highlight of a monumental series of large-format interiors in which animals, lavish ornamental decorations, and reflective surfaces evoke complex questions and associations. Kneffel's subtle and sophisticated brushwork elevates seemingly mundane objects into a realm of sophisticated hyper-reality. The image on the television of a couple with a hunting rifle mysteriously corresponds with the leopard skin next to the bed, with each element occupying different levels of reality and perception. The family dog, hidden or perhaps locked behind the bars of a chair, watches the dead animal warily, adding to the tension in the strikingly empty room. The leopard stares at the viewer through its glass eyes, taking on an almost animate presence. Each element becomes an island of calm while time and space merge, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, evoking a dreamlike, cinematic atmosphere reminiscent of stills from the films of David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock. This brilliantly composed interplay of different levels invites visitors to engage with their memories and ideas deeply. Brigitte Reinhardt commented: “The fact that the artist does not title her works is only logical. The viewer's memories, ideas, desires, and dreams are activated in the face of the fictitious reality and the play with changing levels of perception.” (Quoted from: Brigitte Reinhardt, Verführung und Distanz, Cologne 2006, p. 29). [KA]
Condition report on request katalogisierung@kettererkunst.de
Lot Details
Oil on canvas. Signed and dated on the reverse. 100 x 300 cm. [KA].
• A prime example of Karin Kneffel's masterful combination of reality and illusion. • The large format allows for the fascinating sensation of intense immersion. • Shown in several solo museum exhibitions, most recently in “Im Augenblick,” Max Ernst Museum Brühl, 2022. • Kneffel taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 2008 to 2022. • Kneffel's paintings are part of renowned public collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, and the Olbricht Collection, Essen. Listed on the artist's official website. We are grateful to Prof. Karin Kneffel for her kind support in cataloging this lot. LITERATURE: Wilhelm Werthern, Karin Kneffel, in: Le Monde diplomatique, German edition, January 26, 2020, p. 8. Thomas Hirsch, Karin Kneffel, in: Künstler in Düsseldorf. 80 Beiträge, edition biograph and Salon Verlag, Cologne 2007, p. 248.
Karin Kneffel, Galerie manus presse, Stuttgart, 2005, p. 17. Karin Kneffel. Verführung und Distanz, Ulmer Museum, January 28 - March 26, 2006; Sinclair-Haus, Altana Kulturforum, Bad Homburg, April 7 - June 18, 2006; Mönchehaus-Museum für moderne Kunst, Goslar, July 16 - December 24, 2006, cat. no. 1 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel. Haus am Stadtrand, Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, October 18, 2009 - January 17, 2010, p. 13 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel 1990-2010, Kunsthalle Tübingen, May 1 - July 11, 2010, cat. no. 94 (illustrated) Karin Kneffel, La ventana y el espejo, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Gas Natural Unión Fenosa, October 16, 2014 - February 8, 2015, p. 26. Karin Kneffel. Still, Kunsthalle Bremen, June 22 - Sept. 29, 2019; Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, October 12, 2019 - March 8, 2020, pp. 22f. (illustrated) Karin Kneffel. Im Augenblick, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, May - August 28, 2022, pp. 118-199 (illustrated)
Private collection, Hesse (2005, Galerie manus presse, Stuttgart)
Her precise and technically skilled painterly work has earned Karin Kneffel a place among the most important contemporary German painters. Her paintings walk the line between reality and illusion, playing with memories, locations, and art historical symbols. Kneffel's virtuoso layering offers the viewer insights into complex narratives and invites individual interpretations. After being a master student of Gerhard Richter at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the 1980s, Kneffel quickly gained recognition for her astonishingly realistic animal portraits, fruit paintings, and spatial images. The work “Untitled,” 2004, which was shown in, among others, the 2006 traveling exhibition “Verführung und Distanz” (Seduction and Distance), is the highlight of a monumental series of large-format interiors in which animals, lavish ornamental decorations, and reflective surfaces evoke complex questions and associations. Kneffel's subtle and sophisticated brushwork elevates seemingly mundane objects into a realm of sophisticated hyper-reality. The image on the television of a couple with a hunting rifle mysteriously corresponds with the leopard skin next to the bed, with each element occupying different levels of reality and perception. The family dog, hidden or perhaps locked behind the bars of a chair, watches the dead animal warily, adding to the tension in the strikingly empty room. The leopard stares at the viewer through its glass eyes, taking on an almost animate presence. Each element becomes an island of calm while time and space merge, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, evoking a dreamlike, cinematic atmosphere reminiscent of stills from the films of David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock. This brilliantly composed interplay of different levels invites visitors to engage with their memories and ideas deeply. Brigitte Reinhardt commented: “The fact that the artist does not title her works is only logical. The viewer's memories, ideas, desires, and dreams are activated in the face of the fictitious reality and the play with changing levels of perception.” (Quoted from: Brigitte Reinhardt, Verführung und Distanz, Cologne 2006, p. 29). [KA]
Condition report on request katalogisierung@kettererkunst.de
Karin Kneffel 
