Monumental paintings dominated by ripe apples and grapes brought Karin Kneffel (b.1957, Germany, lives and works in Düsseldorf) international fame. Her works speak to viewers on an intuitive level and evoke symbolic associations of seduction and fertility.
Created in isolation during the years of the Covid pandemic, these new works are Kneffel’s first thematic exploration of the human image on the basis of polychromed 15th- and 16th-century statues of the Virgin Mary found at home and abroad, mainly in Italy and Romania. Conceived as diptychs, these representations focus on the figures’ faces and heads. An array of connections between the seemingly sculpted faces becomes apparent and presents a modern, complex exploration of this charged subject that is both religious and art historical. The central group is supplemented with other works by the artist, thereby infusing the presentation with not only religious, but also existential components.
Before turning to visual art, Kneffel studied German philology and philosophy as well as with Gerhard Richter, whose motifs she copied as fragments or referenced with art historical expertise.
