Konrad Klapheck

1935, Dusseldorf2023, Dusseldorf

Typewriters, faucets and shower heads: Konrad Klapheck transforms everyday things into strange monuments of amazement. His oeuvre is reminiscent of Hyperrealism, Surrealism and Pop Art, yet greatly remains artistically autonomous.

In 1954 Klapheck began his studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Despite the prevailing style of Art Informel at the time, his teacher Bruno Goller encouraged him to further develop his interest in figurative painting. Not even a year later, he produced his first typewriter pictures, which were isolated and precisely worked out down to the last detail. As a source of inspiration, the artist used advertisements presenting new variety of products at the beginning of the 1960s. However, Klapheck detached his objects from the "factuality of the catalogue of goods" and then surrealized them: The result is monumentalized representations of everyday objects that noticeably irritate our trust in things. André Breton, one of the founders of Surrealism, characteristically described Klapheck's working method as follows: “Towards the machines, Klappheck adopts the attitude of the magician, who, indeed shows his helping resources.”

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