A look into the past: Kneffel's preoccupation with the collector Hermann Lange and the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
As early as in 2009, the director of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld invited the artist to stage an exhibition at the Museum Haus Esters. The works in the exhibition should reference both the building itself, as well as its architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969). Accordingly, Karin Kneffel first began to investigate in the architecture and the interior of Haus Esters, but she would continue to work on the project even after the exhibition "Haus am Stadtrand" (2009/2010): In addition to Haus Esters, the artist also started to explore other buildings by Mies van der Rohe, such as the neighboring Haus Lange. Her research eventually produced photographs of the interior from the 1930s, which also documented the vast and impressive art collection of Hermann Lange (1874–1942), at that time owner of the building.

Karin Kneffel meets Modernism
Throughout his life as art collector and patron, Hermann Lange cultivated close ties with the contemporary art scene. Through the documents that have survived, and the photographs that were so crucial to Kneffel's work, it can be ascertained that the Langes owned about 300 paintings and sculptures, among them by Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Robert Delaunay, Juan Gris, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, August Macke, Artistide Maillol, Franz Marc, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Renée Sintenis and Lesser Ury. In her large-size works, Karin Kneffel deals with both the ultra-modern residence by Mies van der Rohe, which the Langes moved into in 1930, and the artworks once presented in them. She composes glimpses into rooms with the masterpieces of a collection that no longer exists today, as it is scattered across the world and in possession of the most important museums and private collections. In a certain sense, Kneffel thus creates an image of the past that she skillfully distorts, transforms and develops with a very own narrative level and with great painterly finesse. In the present monumental work from 2016, the painter depicts the hall of Haus Lange, which - like some of the paintings and sculptures shown - can be found in a photograph of the house from 1930 (fig.). In the far right of the wall we see August Macke's painting "Große Promenade: Leute im Park" (Great Promenade: People in the Park) from 1914 (fig.), and to the left is Wilhelm Lehmbruck's "Torso eines jungen Weibes" (Torso of a Young Woman) from 1911 (fig.). In the left part of the room E. L. Kirchner's "Potsdamer Platz (Street Scene)" from 1914 (fig.) next to Oskar Kokoschka's "Sommer I" from 1922. The "Badednde” (Bather) and the "Torso, sich umwendend" "Torso, Turning" by Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1914) in the foreground of the painting are not visible on the historical photograph of the room, but were added to the composition by the artist.


Behind Glass
The complex large-format presentation, however, is far more than a transformation of a past art collection into the present. Through clever painterly means, the artist makes the observer of the present work believe to be looking into a private living space through a rainy window. Light falls through the window, it is refracted by the glass pane as well as by the water drops, and casts reflections and plays of light and shadow into the room, on the artworks, objects and people. With the 'trompe-l'œil' effect, the painter once again falls back on an artistic principle from art history that has enjoyed great popularity, especially since the 17th century. Just as painters confused viewers with extremely realistic insects in their fruit still lifes, Karin Kneffel's highly realistic water droplets address the process of seeing, the perception of a painting, and the boundary between reality and illusion.
In a resourceful and original way, she creates a meta-level between the image space and the space of the viewer, and draws a noticeable boundary to the voyeuristic viewers who stare into the private premises.

The Narrative Level. Merging the Imagined and the Real World.
In addition to the view into the past, the revival of a former art collection and the glass "meta-level" of the painting, Karin Kneffel creates a third level by enlivening the depicted space with some human figures. In addition to the Lehmbruck sculpture, our painting features a female figure with a cleaning bucket and sponge, watching a gentleman slip on a wet mopped floor like in a slapstick comedy. "Everything happens on one level, and you see everything at the same time. This in a way creates an imaginary level where I can merge presence and history. I try to display reality, at the same time I try to transform it in the artistic representation." (Karin Kneffel, studio talk with Spiegelberger Foundation, https://www.spiegelberger-stiftung.de/ateliergesprache/karin-kneffel/).
With her complex, original and also tongue-in-cheek paintings and the translation processes between photography and painting contained therein, Karin Kneffel has found a playful approach to Realism. The work offered here is a masterpiece of her very characteristic fusion of the real and the imagined world. She combines art-historic traditions with her own innovative ideas and ultimately demonstrates both her great inventiveness as well as the transformation ability of painting. [CH]