#neorealism

[burningdreambanana]

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Europa ‘51 (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)

[thebarroomortheboy]

ALFONSINO PASCA in Paisà/Paisan (1946) | dir. Roberto Rossellini

[fervi-g]

Roma città aperta (1945) dir. Roberto Rossellini

[zyprexaolanzapiba]

work in progress - i love her so much she is my queen and also same tbh

[germanpostwarmodern]

Konrad Klapheck’s (1935-2023) paintings of machines and household appliances are easily remembered icons of German postwar modern art. But what at first sight seems rather straightforward depictions of well-known objects upon closer inspection reveals its actual ambiguity: devoid of their initial function, Klapheck streamlined their appearance and charged them with meaning. They become symbols of a technology-based society, its power structures and cultural roles.

Up until April 26, 2026, the Museum Schloss Cappenberg concludes a year dedicated to the Neue Sachlichkeit with „Konrad Klapheck - Nicht von Menschenhand“ and with it contributes to the renewed discourse surrounding art, technology and its imageries. At the same time it connects Klapheck and Franz Roh’s concept of „Magical Realism“ as represented by e.g. Richard Oelze whose paintings blur the lines of realism and surrealism.

Coinciding with the exhibition Verlag Kettler published the present catalogue that reproduces the paintings and drawings included in the exhibition and contextualizes Klapheck’s art in four worthwhile essays by Arne Reimann, Kay Heymer, Tanja Wessolowski and Sasa Hanten. Reimann, the exhibition’s curator, underscores the intertwining of body and machine in Klapheck’s art, especially in his depictions of water taps and showers that are charged with erotic allusions. At the same time, as Reimann explains, his works evade straightforward legibility and instead embrace ambiguity that also aren’t resolved by their titles as he only assigned these after finishing them.

Klapheck’s artistic development and biographical background are elucidated by Kay Heymer who stresses the artist’s connectedness with the historical and postwar avant-garde. On the other hand he also campaigns for Klapheck’s preliminary drawings: his colleague Gotthard Graubner had pointed out their significance and since 1973 Klapheck presented them as autonomous works. Luckily the exhibition also shows several of them.

With the present catalogue the reader receives a profound and readable supplement to an exhibition that offers a first posthumous overview of Konrad Klapheck’s significant oeuvre. Warmly recommended!

[valentineua]

Still Life with Peaches (1927) - Luigi Lucioni

[nothing-like-the-sun-jgr]

"Sun and Wind on the Roof", 1915

oil on canvas, 61.2 x 51.4 cm

John Sloan (American,1871-1951)