Homage to Gerhard Richter, Chagall and Co.: Karin Kneffel in the Franz Marc Museum Kochel

Created: 05/27/2022, 17:18

By: Katja Kraft

A look at the museum: Karin Kneffel reflected exactly one of the exhibition rooms in Kochel in her picture – including the Chagall work “The Holy Cab Driver” (right), which is now hanging there as a loan.

© VG BILD-KUNST 2022

Karin Kneffel was once a master student of Gerhard Richter.

Today the painter herself is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

The Franz Marc Museum Kochel is now showing works by Karin Kneffel, in which she plays with works from art history.

Yes, Karin Kneffel was a master student of Gerhard Richter in the eighties.

And yes, today he is one of the best-paid living artists in the world.

This is emphasized again and again when you read about the painter, who has been a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich for many years.

Pretty tedious, isn't it?

"Oh, of course it's a bit odd that I'm still called a 'master student' today," says the 65-year-old evenly.

“But you know, I once talked to Andreas Gursky about it – he is still considered the perennial 'Becher student' because he studied with Bernd Becher.

But there are worse labels, don't you think?"

Franz Marc Museum Kochel shows Karin Kneffel's series "Im Bild"

And basically this constant reference to her teacher suits Karin Kneffel, who for her part always thinks about what came before in art history.

She does this very explicitly in her series "Im Bild", which can be seen in the Franz Marc Museum Kochel until October 3, 2022.

More aptly: to explore, explore, feel.

Karin Kneffel invites us to play.

Memory in the museum.

In each picture she has hidden at least one masterpiece by Macke, Kirchner, Kandinsky - and many of the originals can also be found in the rooms.

A festival for attentive observers.

Karin Kneffel incorporates masterpieces of art history like this Chagall into her paintings.

© bpk/Staedel Museum

Kneffel himself had her doubts as to whether the exhibition concept would work.

Of course, the idea of ​​showing the original paintings that she includes in her work in the show was charming.

But where to get if not steal?

In Kochel, the answer is simple: you turn to Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, head of the Franz Marc Museum there, art expert - and gifted networker.

The Frankfurt Städel is contacted and a loan of Chagall's "The Holy Cab Driver" (1911) is arranged, or Oskar Kokoschka's "Summer" (1922) is borrowed from the Dresden Albertinum.

How did she do it again?

There it is, the typical delicate Klingsöhr-Leroy smile.

"Somehow it always works." And then there are the many pictures from their own collection that they could fall back on.

Karin Kneffel was inspired by Mies van der Rohe

The starting point for Karin Kneffel's "Im Bild" series are black-and-white photos from 1930 commissioned by the architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

The pictures show the Herrmann Lange collection at that time in the rooms of the Esters and Lange villas, which van der Rohe built in the 1920s.

What treasures were hanging on the walls at the time is no longer so easy to see in the photos.

Everything has long since faded, some almost completely black.

Kneffel, who was greedy for something new, wanted to know what was behind every black square.

And got started with her Malevich detective work.

The painter Karin Kneffel.

© Meike Boeschemeyer

She quickly recognized August Macke’s “Große Promenade” (1914) from one of the photos.

Found out it hangs in Kochel.

Drove there - and found: Photography forbidden.

"So my husband had to engage the minder in conversation so I could sneak out my camera," says the savvy artist.

After all, she didn't just want to remember the picture, but the entire scenery in which it hangs today.

In order to then capture them in their seemingly photorealistic works in oil on canvas.

In order to create the effect that fascinates: when Kneffel depicts the museum space in which one is standing oneself, one has the feeling of being the observer and the observed at the same time.

There's something uncanny about it, something that's also tingling and incredibly lively.

To add to this feeling

Kneffel inserts drops of water in the foreground of the image.

It's like looking through a rainy window pane at the world you're part of at the same moment.

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Gerhard Richter's "Betty" continued artistically

Sometimes these drops themselves reflect a piece of art history.

When Kneffel makes a painting of inverted pitched-roof houses sparkle, this is not just a reference to the surroundings of Haus Esters and Haus Lange;

the pitched roofs stand for the narrow-mindedness against which van der Rohe and the Bauhaus with their clear forms were directed.

And how does the former student approach her former master artistically?

Karin Kneffel's examination of Gerhard Richter's world-famous "Betty" (1978) is probably the most touching work in the show.

If you stand in front of it with Kneffel, the otherwise quite mellow artist becomes almost a bit emotional.

It shows three of her own students, including Felix Rehfeld, looking at the "Betty".

"I watched the three of them study the painting technique very carefully," says Kneffel.

"I had to smile to myself - because I thought: Here is my teacher's work and in front of it are my students, who are already referred to as 'Gerhard Richter's grandchildren'." A bloodline that pulsates with creativity.

Until October 3, 2022, Tue.-Sun.

and public holidays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Catalogue: “Karin Kneffel.

In the picture".

Schirmer/Mosel, 128 pages;

39.80 euros, in the museum: 29.80 euros.

All further information is available here