Konrad Klapheck

Konrad Peter Cornelius Klapheck was born in Düsseldorf in 1935. From 1954 to 1958 he studied at Düsseldorf’s art academy, devoting himself to representational painting. He produced his first picture of a typewriter in 1955, which was followed by depictions of sewing machines, irons, telephones and drills, all of which can be perceived as personifications of human qualities. His childhood war experiences enter into his work again and again. In 1957 he met Yves Klein, but also associated with Surrealists like Max Ernst, André Breton and René Magritte. Klapheck’s first solo show was at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf in 1959. The painter has been represented at a number of documenta exhibitions in Kassel, and 1966 brought his first retrospectives in Wuppertal and Hanover. Klapheck ended the series of machine paintings in 1976, and turned to nudes in interiors and landscapes. Between 1976 and 2002 Klapheck taught the class for free painting at Düsseldorf’s art academy. He lives and works in Düsseldorf to this day.