The sensual surfaces seduce the eye, inviting the viewer to simply enjoy. Karin Kneffel paints canvases that exert a magical attraction. Her realist painting draws the viewer into sophisticated visual worlds where her artful arrangement of formal ornaments and interplay of colors merge into an optical fireworks display. However, the works retain a detached secrecy, as if the perfect, inviting, yet sealed surface deliberately impedes a closer look.
Oversized fruit arrangements, luxurious interiors, subtle reflections, pattern fusion and various layers of imagery combine to create an aesthetic effect that immediately captivates the beholder. The stories that the artist combines and expands in his works give the usually large-scale oil paintings an intriguing depth and density of content. Fragments of art and cinema history, literature and autobiographical references they transform Kneffel's works into visual Matryoshka nested dolls that make her art a highly enjoyable experience. Like pearls on a chain, the paintings line up next to each other, building on the content of one another, continuing a narrative thread.
Karin Kneffel (born 1957 in Marl), principal student of Gerhard Richter, is one of Germany's most famous and successful artists. Her exhibition at the Frieder Burda Museum is her first retrospective in about ten years. Designed in close collaboration with the artist herself, the exhibition was staged as a joint venture with Kunsthalle Bremen. In addition to her first masterpieces, the The exhibition focuses mainly on works from the last ten years as well as new, never exhibited before works, which he created especially for Baden-Baden, inspired by and intended to pay homage to the Frieder Burda Collection.
