PETER KLASEN
b. Lübeck, Germany 1935
Peter Klasen is a German artist known for his collage-like Pop Art paintings and prints. Using an airbrush, the artist contrasts images of industrial objects like pressure gauges and hydraulic circuits, with sexually charged images of nude women. These juxtapositions are the means by which the artist confronts themes of confinement, political control, and fear. “The human body vanishes from Klasen’s work behind the heavy doors, grids, and covers of trucks, cars, prisons,” the critic Claude Bouyeure said of the paintings. “In a word, behind all these places which, physically, psychologically, symbolically, squeeze, enclose, isolate, oppress and which henceforth padlock the entire frontal aspect of the paintings.”
When his father died in World War II, that event deeply wounded the artist growing up. Klasen went on to study at the Universität der Künste Berlin, where he absorbed the avant-garde ideas of Will Grohmann and Hans Richter. After moving to Paris in 1959, he helped found the La Nouvelle Figuration movement along with the artists Bernard Rancillac and Valerio Adami. La Nouvelle Figurationist’s aim was to criticize consumer culture, rather than celebrate it like Andy Warhol. Klasen currently lives and works in Paris, France. His works are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
MEET THE ARTIST
CURRICULUM & EXHIBITIONS
Timeline
- 1955
- Admitted to the Beaux-Arts de Berlin where he followed a course by Will Grohmann, friend of Paul Klee. He went to Hans Richter's conferences (the protagonist of the Dada movement) and also those of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Head of the Die Brucke following). He met young artists including Georg Baselitz and the photographer Benjamin Katz
- 1959
- Assisted at the opening of the Documenta de Cassel and visited the exhibition dedicated to Wols (whom he discovered a few months before during an exhibition in Berlin). Then he moves to Paris; 'Each day from 6pm to midnight, I went to the Cinémathèque on the rue d'Ulm to watch Fritz Lang and Murneau's films.' He also discovered the nouvelle vague française, the Italian neo-realists and the Shodox by John Cassavetes at the Biennale de Paris.
- 1961
- First appearance of sections of women's bodies in his painting
- 1963
- Participated at the exhibition 'Image à cinq branches' at the Galerie Marthias-Fels in Paris with René Bertholo, Carl Frederic Reuterswärd, Hervé Télémaque et Jan Voss : catalogue préfacé par José Pierre.
- Studied at Hochschule der Künste Berlin, Germany
- Currently lives and works in Paris
- Teacher at the European Academy of Fine Arts Trier, Germany
Exhibitions
- 2012
- Aufbruch Realismus. Die neue Wirklichkeit im Bild nach ’68, Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Germany
- 2012
- Aufbruch Realismus. Die neue Wirklichkeit im Bild nach ’68, Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Germany
- 1997
- Public works at l’Espace Cargo, Marseille.
- 1997
- Made in France, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, France
- 1992
- Exteriors 1991-1992, Guy Pieters Gallery, Knokke-le-Zoute.
- 1991
- (solo exhibitions) Arts point Gallery, Tokyo.
Klasen devant le miroir de notre monde, Galerie GKM, Malmö.
Galerie Alexandre de la Salle, Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
Shock corridor Dead End, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, FIAC, Paris. - 1990
- (solo exhibitions)The Berlin Wall Cycle and Recent Paintings, Mayer-Schwartz Gallery, Los Angeles.
Les Années 60 de Klasen, Galerie de Bellecour, Lyon.
City Lights, Galerie Le Miroir d’Encre, Bruxelles. - 1988
- (solo exhibitions) Œuvres Récentes, Galerie Gastaud, Clermont-Ferrand
Rétrospective, Galerie d’art contemporain, Charmalières.
Galerie Jacqueline Storme, Lille.
Le Mur de Berlin, Sortie d’usine, PACA, Angers.
Galleri GKM, Malmö.
Galerie Mathias Fels, FIAC, Paris.
Maximilian Gallery, New York.
Histoire de lieux ordinaires, peintures, Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Paris.
Histoire de lieux ordinaires, œuvres sur papier, Galerie Fanny Guillon-Lafaille, Paris. - 1987
- Oeuvres de 1961 à 1987, Hôtel de Ville, Cholet ; Nouveau Théâtre, Angers, PACA, Angers.
Présence Contemporaine, Rétrospective de l’œuvre peinte de 1960 à 1987, Cloître Saint-Louis, Aix-en-Provence.
Rétrospective, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Carcassone. - 1980
- Form of Realism Today, Musée d'Art Contemporain Montréal, Québec, Canada
- 1976
- Art Contemporain IV, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, France
- 1972
- Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, Belgium
- 1966–1972
- Galerie Mathias Fels Paris, France
- 1970
- Three Tendencies in Contemporary French Art, Hannover, Munich, Cologne, Brussels, Antwerp
- 1968
- L'art Vivant, 1965-1968, Fondation Maeght Saint Paul de Vence, France
- 1964
- Galerie Friedrich Munich, Germany
- 1964
- Mythologoes quotidiennes, Musée d'Art Moderne Paris
