Sale: 550 / Evening Sale, June 07. 2024 in Munich
Lot 124000350
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124000350
Karin Kneffel
Äpfel (Ohne Titel), 1999.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 128,400 - 160,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Äpfel (Ohne Titel). 1999.
Oil on canvas.
Signed, dated and inscribed "F LXXIV" on the reverse. 180 x 200 cm (70.8 x 78.7 in). [EH].
Karin Kneffel's works are currently shown in the exhibition "Reiche Ernte. Früchte in der Kunst des 20. und 21.Jahrhunderts” at the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen.
• Karin Kneffel's photorealistic depictions of fruit are the artist's most sought-after works on the international auction market.
• Kneffel's works have featured in exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery New York since 2012.
• The Museum Küppersmühle honors Karin Kneffel with a retrospective exhibition from May 23 to September 1, 2024.
• To date, only one apple painting has been offered on the international auction market (artprice.com).
We are grateful to Prof. Karin Kneffel for her kind support in cataloging this lot.
PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany (ca. 2014, Gal. Schönewald und Beuse).
EXHIBITION: Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zürich (here: Aepfel, with a label on the reverse of the stretcher)
Galerie Schönewald und Beuse, Düsseldorf (with a label on the reverse of the stretcher)
Karin Kneffel. Verführung und Distanz - Seduction and distance, Ulmer Museum January 28 - March 26, 2006, cat. no. 83, ill. on p. 133.
Pro figura: Luxus, Stille, Lust - Malerische Positionen, 8. Bautzener Herbstsalon, Stadtmuseum Bautzen August 28 - October 3, 2004.
Von Marl aus - II. Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, November 17, 2002 - January 26, 2003. ill. on p. 30
Karin Kneffel. Kunsthalle Emden June 30 - October 14, 2001.
LITERATURE: www.kneffel.de/works/1999.
"Pictures are so much more than the illustration of a statement."
Karin Kneffel, Kunstforum International vol. 295
Oil on canvas.
Signed, dated and inscribed "F LXXIV" on the reverse. 180 x 200 cm (70.8 x 78.7 in). [EH].
Karin Kneffel's works are currently shown in the exhibition "Reiche Ernte. Früchte in der Kunst des 20. und 21.Jahrhunderts” at the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen.
• Karin Kneffel's photorealistic depictions of fruit are the artist's most sought-after works on the international auction market.
• Kneffel's works have featured in exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery New York since 2012.
• The Museum Küppersmühle honors Karin Kneffel with a retrospective exhibition from May 23 to September 1, 2024.
• To date, only one apple painting has been offered on the international auction market (artprice.com).
We are grateful to Prof. Karin Kneffel for her kind support in cataloging this lot.
PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany (ca. 2014, Gal. Schönewald und Beuse).
EXHIBITION: Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zürich (here: Aepfel, with a label on the reverse of the stretcher)
Galerie Schönewald und Beuse, Düsseldorf (with a label on the reverse of the stretcher)
Karin Kneffel. Verführung und Distanz - Seduction and distance, Ulmer Museum January 28 - March 26, 2006, cat. no. 83, ill. on p. 133.
Pro figura: Luxus, Stille, Lust - Malerische Positionen, 8. Bautzener Herbstsalon, Stadtmuseum Bautzen August 28 - October 3, 2004.
Von Marl aus - II. Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, November 17, 2002 - January 26, 2003. ill. on p. 30
Karin Kneffel. Kunsthalle Emden June 30 - October 14, 2001.
LITERATURE: www.kneffel.de/works/1999.
"Pictures are so much more than the illustration of a statement."
Karin Kneffel, Kunstforum International vol. 295
Karin Kneffel has been exploring the classic genre of fruit still lifes since the mid-1990s. She portrays the fruits, like the apples in the present picture, in multiple variations, always in extreme close-up and a hyper-realistic perfection. Her fruit paintings, in which the oversized fruits are the protagonists, are famous for their perfect illusion. Despite the immediacy of the depiction, they still observe a mysterious distance. Karin Kneffel has taken the fruit still life to a new level, restoring its raison d'être in contemporary art.
In “Apples (Untitled F LXXIV)”, the apples free themselves from their still life paralysis and form a moving landscape that tells of diversity and transience. Between perfectly shiny, red-cheeked apples, there are also some with flaws, small wormholes and brown spots. This sea of apples rests on a soft, dark cushion that can be identified as dry leaves.
Even though this work does not put focus on hyper-realistic perfection, Karin Kneffel still employs an intricate technique. In order to achieve the impression of a perfect feel of various degrees of maturity, she works with the utmost precision. The canvas is primed and sanded several times so that the paint is absorbed just the way the artist needs it. The motif is roughly sketched out in pencil. Kneffel then uses very fine brushes, even for large paintings like this one, and painstakingly applies the paint in wafer-thin layers. This multi-layered structure of the paint leads to an impressive depth effect on the surfaces. All traces of the creative process have been erased from the perfectly even surface of the painting; not a trace of brushwork or impasto parts remain.
In a perfection of this kind, Karin Kneffel reveals the beauty of the fruit in harmony with the beauty of transience. The eye wanders over the infinite sea of apples of which no two are the same. The light atmosphere gives the surface an impression of drifting clouds, which results in the 'unreal reality' so typical of Karin Kneffel and for which her paintings are so sought after. In doing so, she also tells of transience and ties in with the classic theme of the momento mori in baroque still life painting. Karin Kneffel questions and reinvents traditional pictorial themes.
“Verführung und Distanz” (Seduction and Distance) was the apt title of Kneffel's 2006 exhibition in Ulm and elsewhere, where our painting was also shown. Karin Kneffel herself says: “I try to keep the viewer at a distance, to direct their gaze and to set traps. I don't want them to lose themselves in my paintings, I want them to engage with them.”
In “Apples (Untitled F LXXIV)”, the apples free themselves from their still life paralysis and form a moving landscape that tells of diversity and transience. Between perfectly shiny, red-cheeked apples, there are also some with flaws, small wormholes and brown spots. This sea of apples rests on a soft, dark cushion that can be identified as dry leaves.
Even though this work does not put focus on hyper-realistic perfection, Karin Kneffel still employs an intricate technique. In order to achieve the impression of a perfect feel of various degrees of maturity, she works with the utmost precision. The canvas is primed and sanded several times so that the paint is absorbed just the way the artist needs it. The motif is roughly sketched out in pencil. Kneffel then uses very fine brushes, even for large paintings like this one, and painstakingly applies the paint in wafer-thin layers. This multi-layered structure of the paint leads to an impressive depth effect on the surfaces. All traces of the creative process have been erased from the perfectly even surface of the painting; not a trace of brushwork or impasto parts remain.
In a perfection of this kind, Karin Kneffel reveals the beauty of the fruit in harmony with the beauty of transience. The eye wanders over the infinite sea of apples of which no two are the same. The light atmosphere gives the surface an impression of drifting clouds, which results in the 'unreal reality' so typical of Karin Kneffel and for which her paintings are so sought after. In doing so, she also tells of transience and ties in with the classic theme of the momento mori in baroque still life painting. Karin Kneffel questions and reinvents traditional pictorial themes.
“Verführung und Distanz” (Seduction and Distance) was the apt title of Kneffel's 2006 exhibition in Ulm and elsewhere, where our painting was also shown. Karin Kneffel herself says: “I try to keep the viewer at a distance, to direct their gaze and to set traps. I don't want them to lose themselves in my paintings, I want them to engage with them.”
124000350
Karin Kneffel
Äpfel (Ohne Titel), 1999.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 128,400 - 160,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.