Oil on canvas
69 × 81 cm
Hilti Art Foundation, Schaan
Konrad Klapheck already showed a strong interest in Surrealism as a student of Bruno Goller at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the mid-1950s. His subject matter includes such devices and utilitarian objects as typewriters, sewing machines, telephones, irons, shoes trees, clocks and bicycle bells. Rendered in a cool, precise realism, these objects appear curiously detached and estranged.
The artist personally dedicated this painting to André Breton in gratitude for his contribution to the catalogue published in conjunction with Klapheck's solo exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery, Paris, in 1965. Breton was a writer and poet and, as the foremost theoretician of Surrealism, penned the Surrealist Manifestoes of 1924 and 1930. Klapheck first met the Frenchman, born in 1986, in 1961, and Breton kindly invited him to join the daily evening get-togethers of the Paris Surrealists at the café 'La Promenade de Venus'. Breton owned three paintings by Klapheck.
Am Ziel der Wünsche (Wishes Come True) of 1963 is a largely abstract composition although everything in it seems to be objective. A slender pipe lies centred in a groove in a cubic body, perceived as a trapezoid in foreshortened perspective and almost filling the entire picture plane against a background that suggests depth. What does this represent? The barrel of a canon plus mount? A machine? A flue? A drainpipe? The difficulty of interpreting the painting is compounded by the fact that one can barely distinguish whether the representation is from a bird's- or worm's-eye view. The mysterious objects, the smoothness and lack of texture, and the fanciful colours lend the work a clearly Surrealist character, inviting free association. Nonetheless, Klapheck notes that perhaps Breton did not appreciate this work since he never saw it in the Surrealist's studio.
Julia Ryff
"Then, in Paris, I realised that the objects and the mecha- nical elements of small household appliances provided me with my vocabulary."
Konrad Klapheck
