Lot 659 D

Alongside her larger than life fruit still lifes, Karin Kneffel is particularly known for her animal portraits. She began producing these lifelike works in the early 1990s, depicting domestic animals head-on or in profile, using the traditional genre of naturalistic art. The uniform monochrome grey background links the individual works so that they could be placed in a row alongside each other.
Put together they obtain a symbolic character whilst their individual nuances occur in conflict with their standardised uniformity. Consequently Kneffel's portrait style functions in opposition to its actual function. Were they able individually to develop their own personal expression, they would be eventually de-individualised by their juxtaposition in the exhibition space. Systematically they are strongly geometrically connected and, reduced to a minimal size, form part of a great whole.