Peter KLASEN

Educated at the Berlin School of The Art and residing in France since 1956, Peter Klasen has gained a reputation as a pioneer of Figuration Narrative. He has formed his own visual language based on the integration of photography in his pictorial works.

Klasen completed his first "Tableaux-rencontres" using objects of various connotations: the pieces oppose cut-out images of these objects, painted in the airbrush style. He focused on objects of consumption, such as telephones and electric equipment, charming personal items such as lipsticks, and medical paraphernalia including stethoscopes, thermometers and syringes.
The absence of any individual vitality in the work is underlined by the fact that Klasen only paints with the spray gun, always going over pre-cut images. This technique encourages viewers to think critically about the world surrounding us. At the same time, the female body began to figure in Klasen’s work: the artist began to include fragmented images of the female form taken from billboards, magazines, and movies (see "Nausée", 1961 and "Sexe faible", 1967). This focus remained unchanged throughout much of the 1960s and 70s.

In the 1970s, Klasen achieved great success through a retrospective presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The show featured Ensembles et Accessoires, in which he develops the theme of the body and health, depicting objects such as surgical utensils, bidets, exhaust pipes and certain objects embellished with neon. He also created a series depicting baths , toilets and the like, shown in their actual size to give a sense of violence to the image.

Later, Klasen painted his "Tableaux binaires", which are based on the combination of a fragment of the human body and a painted object or system (e.g. an open mouth and a stethoscope). These heterogenous, unlikely combinations underline the ambiguity of reality and its representation. Klasen plays with the dynamic between images that are considered sensual and pleasing, and things pertaining to the market society that are often considered vile. Klasen’s work denounces progress and technology, but can also be understood as a representation of confinement: he paints in close up, approaching the subject straight on and without a background (see "Rideau de fer/ fond noir", 1974, "Camion", 1972 and "Wagon réfrigérant", 1977).

In 1981, after a stay in New York, Klasen abandoned his focus on fragments of scientific and technological civilization to take on the action and ephemeral nature of time. He began to use drips, stains and graffiti as modes of representation, leading to an important exhibition called "Traces", debuted at Aimé Maeght in 1982. That same year, Klasen initiated a historicity: he and 30 of his fellow Figuration Narrative proponents painted an armored door together. Between 1986 and 1990, Klasen began his “Mur de Berlin” cycle, a series of 100 paintings which he created before the fall of the wall. In 1991, he debuted the installation "Shock corridor/ Dead end" at the FIAC. It measured over 1075 square feet and was inspired by the Samuel Fuller film of the same name, which suggests themes of psychiatric concentration. In the late 1990s and 2000s, Klasen reintroduced the body in his work, including erotic images of naked women in his piece (see Iron Ladies, 1998). He has also composed important eschatological responses to the 9/11 attacks, with works such as "Life is beautiful!" and "Elements of disaster". Klasen’s oeuvre serves as a metaphor for human society and civilization, and is a great tool for dissecting the nuances of each.

Pierre de Taillancourt

Selected Works

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Selected Exhibitions

Peter Klasen Oct 2, 2009 - Nov 29, 2009 Le Tri-Postal, Lille, FRANCE