Karin Kneffel

Basic Data

Karin Kneffel is a Europe-wide known German artist. Because of the Gagosian Gallery in New York she is getting now also international attention. As a student of Gerhard Richter she is an exceptional talent of hyperrealism.

• Date of Birth: 13 January 1957
• Place of Birth: Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia
• Nationality: German
• Studied at: Staatliche Kunstakademie Dusseldorf
• Teacher: Gerhard Richter
• Era: Hyperrealism

Kneffel became known especially for her motives of known objects such as fruits and animals. Her exploration of light and its reflections on the surfaces of displayed objects made her internationally famous. With the reflections she deformed the reality.

Karin Kneffel Art For Sale

Karin Kneffel Animalportrait Rooster red Etching Print

Price: $993

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Karin Kneffel Animalportrait Sheep Etching Print

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Karin Kneffel Animalportrait Goat white Etching Print

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Karin Kneffel Etching Print Blumen

Price: $3,123

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Karin Kneffel Print Etching Ohne Titel- Fell

Price: $2,693

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Karin Kneffel Pflaumen Etching Print

Price: $3,123

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Karin Kneffel Etching Im Liegestuhl Print

Price: $1,731

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Karin Kneffel Cherries Print Serigraph

Price: $1,154

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Karin Kneffel Print Etching Ohne Titel

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Karin Kneffel Etching Print Teppich

Price: $2,900

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Karin Kneffel for sale

Are you interested in the art of german painter Karin Kneffel? In the section Karin Kneffel artworks and editions you will find our selection of etchings and screenprints of the artist.

Karin Kneffel editions and prints

Karin Kneffel combines surrealism with realism in her photo-realistic works. Kneffel initially studied philosophy and German language and literature until she began her studies at the renowned Düsseldorf Art Academy, where she was a student of Norbert Tadeusz, Johannes Brus and Gerhard Richter. Today the artist is one of the most important painters in Europe and one of the most important representatives of Neorealism. She lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Karin Kneffel has become known above all for her unique painting style, which is reminiscent of an old-masterly manner and impressively demonstrates her technical ability. She arranges animals, fruits, or interiors in oversized and often cropped depictions, drawing on the traditional subjects of Western art history. The artist quickly devoted herself to painting, but her editions in the form of original prints, ranging from etchings to silkscreens, also appear like paintings.

Currently you can find the silkscreen o.T. Kirschen (1998) in our program.The artist often picks up the motif of the cherry in her works. Here she has arranged them in pairs with cherry pits. Their shadows stand out sharply on the blue background and associate with the Memento Mori from the 17th century.

Etchings by Karin Kneffel

In addition to Karin Kneffel lithographs and serigraphs, we can offer you a large selection of etchings for sale.

As in the just mentioned serigraph o.T. Kirschen, the painter became known to a wide audience with fruit depictions around the turn of the millennium. As in the etching Pflaumen, she shows the precisely painted, lush fruits in extreme refinement, which thus become the symbol of a promised pleasure.

One of Kneffel's early motifs is also the depiction of animal portraits. As in the color etchings Gockel rot, Schaf or Ziege Weiss, the painter creates iconic creatures shown in profile against a black background.

In addition to the etchings ohne Titel and Ohne Titel Fell, you will also find the 82 x 63 cm Karin Kneffel etching Blumen in our portfolio. Due to the low perspective, the meadow flowers depicted here appear monumental and the snow-covered mountain landscape depicted in the background even small and insignificant.

The artist's later motifs also include landscapes and interiors. Thus, in the etching Teppich (Carpet) from 2006, Karin Kneffel depicts a view of a staircase covered with an ornamental carpet, which seems to be staged or even surreally illuminated. This illumination reinforces the motif's expression of placelessness and timelessness.

The artist often uses ornamentation as an artistic strategy to establish a certain distance between the image and the viewer. Kneffel wants to break the established perspectives of her viewers and create new perspectives by subtly alienating the familiar. In her art, she thematizes the approach to the subject of reality, so that content often recedes in favor of the process of cognition. In addition to the beauty of things it is its ambivalence, the realism, which fascinates the artist. Through the close-up view of her motifs, she creates cool atmospheres and unbridgeable distances that can sometimes seem eerie or almost threatening. And so it is also her realistic works through which she manages to raise doubts about reality in the viewer.

Karin Kneffel prices

Biography

PRIVATE

Childhood and Studies

The German artist Karin Kneffel was born on January 13, 1957 in Marl. From home she had no relation to art, but she was able to identify herself with art in her early years. The young Kneffel was sinistral, however she was transformed in school to dexterity. Only in art class she could use her natural handedness to draw pictures.

In 1977 she began to study German language and literature studies and philosophy at Westphalia Wilhelmsuniversität in Münster and at Gesamthochschule Duisburg. During this time she was discovered by one of her former professors and applied in 1981 for studies of art. She started this as a student of Johannes Brus and Norbert Tadeusz at Staatliche Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf. Later she became master student of Gerhard Richter. In 1987 she completed her studies and began to work as an artist and professor.

Scholarships

During her studies, she completed a six-month scholarship at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. This was followed by many scholarships like Karl-Schmidt-Rotluff-Stipendium in 1991 and a scholarship in Villa Massimo in Rome (1996). Eleven years later Matthias Weischer studied at the same place.

Teaching Activity

In addition to her work as an artist Kneffel started her career as an art professor. In 1998 she became visiting professor at Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and in 2000 in Reykjavik, at Iceland Academy oft the Arts. In the same year she took up a job in Bremen. She held this position until 2008. Thereupon she became professor at Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich. In this position she works until today.

Exhibitions

Current exhibitions

Past exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 2015 Fallstudien. Arbeiten auf Papier – Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Köln; Kunsthalle, Bremerhaven
• 2013 Butter never crossed my Mind – Schönwald Fine Arts, Dusseldorf
• 2013 Karin Kneffel – Gallery Dirimart, Istanbul
• 2012 Ich muss eine Wand hinter mir haben. Bilder und Aquarelle – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
• 2010 Karin Kneffel. Hauptwerke 1990-2010 – Kunsthalle, Tübingen
• 2009 Haus am Stadtrand – Kunstmuseum Krefeld
• 2008 Looking Glass – Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese, Stuttgart
• 2007 Arbeiten auf Papier – Edition Steack, Heidelberg
• 2006 Verführung und Distanz – Ulmer Museum, Ulm
• 2004 Recent Paintings – Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
• 2002 Früchte und Ornamente – Galerie Christine König, Vienna
• 2000 Karin Kneffel – Castello de Rivara, Turin
• 1999 Karin Kneffel Jan Dibbets – Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
• 1997 Karin Kneffel, Eberhard Knauber – Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo, Rome
• 1996 Le Case d’Arte, Galerie Pasquale Leccese, Milan
• 1994 Karin Kneffel, Jacques van Erven – Galerie Wanda Reiff, Amsterdam
• 1993 Aquarelle 1992-93 – Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne
• 1990 Galerie Schütz, Frankfurt a.M.
• 1988 Raum 404, Heidelberg
• 1984 Karin Kneffel, Elke Denda – Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich

Group exhibitions

• 2021 wild/schön - Kunsthalle Emden
• 2020 Moving Energies – 10 years me Collectors Room Berlin – me Collectors Room Berlin
• 2017 Domestic Space - Neue Galerie Landshut
• 2017 Künstlerräume - Weserburg Bremen
• 2016 Die Kerze - Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
• 2016 Lasst Blumen sprechen! - Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau
• 2016 IN WONDERLAND. A Birthday Exhibition for Timo Miettinen - Salon Dahlmann, Berlin
• 2015 Einfühlung und Abstraktion. Die Moderne der Frauen – Kunsthalle, Bielefeld
• 2015 Ein Baum ist ein Baum ist ein Baum – Beck & Eggeling, Düsseldorf
• 2015 49. Art Cologne, Cologne
• 2014 Alle Tiere sind gleich – Städtische Galerie, Pforzheim
• 2013 Wahlverwandtschaften. Aktuelle Malerei und Zeichnungen aus dem Museum Frieder Burda – Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf
• 2012 9. art Karlsruhe
• 2011 Frühjahr 2011 – Galerie Ludorff, Dusseldorf
• 2010 15. Art Forum Berlin, Internationale Messe für Gegenwartskunst, Berlin
• 2009 Interieurs, Landschaften und Stillleben – Museum Esters, Krefeld
• 2008 An die Natur. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus der Altana Sammlung – Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
• 2007 Die Kunst zu sammeln – Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf
• 2006 Neue Malerei. Junge Kunst – Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
• 2004 Malerei. Stuttgarter art alarm 2004 – Galerie manus presse, Stuttgart
• 2003 20 Jahre Lingener Kunstpreis – Kunsthalle Kunstverein Lingen
• 2002 Grafik der Gegenwart – Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
• 2000 Essensbilder – Galerie Dörrie * Pries, Hamburg
• 1999 Malerei – INIT Kunsthalle, Berlin
• 1998 Es grünt so grün... – Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
• 1997 Alpenblick. Die zeitgenössische Kunst und das Alpine – Kunsthalle, Vienna
• 1996 Junge Künstler aus Deutschland, Belgien, England, USA – Galerie Sander, Darmstadt
• 1995 Junge deutsche Kunst der 90er Jahre aus NRW. Die Generation nach Becher, Beuys, Polke und Richter – Travelling exhibition: Arts Center, Hong Kong; Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; Palace of the Working People, Beijing; National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka; Kulturhuset, Stockholm
• 1994 Projekt Flagge zeigen. Klaus Staeck bei Hans Mayer – Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf
• 1993 Medium Messages – Wooster Gardens, New York City
• 1992 Die Einen. Die Anderen – Kunstverein Region Heinsberg
• 1992 26. Art Cologne, Cologne
• 1991 Gulliver’s Reisen – Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne
• 1990 The Köln Show. Ausstellungen in 9 Kölner Galerien – Cologne
• 1988 Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich
• 1985 Förderpreis für Malerei – Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster 

Awards

• 2019 Member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• 2016 Cologne-Fine-Art-Award
• 2011 Preisträger Helmut Kraft-Stiftung zur Förderung der Bildenden Kunst
• 1996 Villa Massimo Stipendium, Rome
• 1994 Lingener Kunstpreis
• 1992 Kunstfonds Bonn

Literature

• Karin Kneffel. Fallstudien: Arbeiten auf Papier, exhibition catalogue, Käthe-Köllwitz Museum Köln, Cologne 2015.
• Wahlverwandtschaften, exhibition catalogue, Museum Frieder Burda, Cologne 2013.
• Karin Kneffel, published by Brigitte Reinhardt, Dusseldorf 2010. 
• Karin Kneffel 1990-2010, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Ostfildern 2010.
• Karin Kneffel. Haus am Stadtrand, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Ostfildern 2009.
• Sweet Dream. Klasse Karin Kneffel Kunsthochschulen I,  exhibition catalogue, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, Bremen 2008.
• Karin Kneffel, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle in Emden, Cologne 2001.
• Karin Kneffel, published by Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo Rom, Rome 1997.

Collections

Germany

• Baden-Baden – Sammlung Frieder Burda
• Stuttgart – Daimler Art Collection