9 - Konrad Klapheck

Konrad Klapheck Die Forderungen der Moral II (Les Exigences de la Morale II) 1982 Charcoal and colour pencil on transparent paper 115 x 140 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Klapheck'. Signed, dated and titled 'Konrad KLAPHECK Zeichnung für "Die Forderungen der Moral" II Dessin pour "Les Exigences de la Morale" II 1982' on adhesive label on frame backing. - Traces of studio and minor traces of age. We woud like to thank David Klapheck, Dusseldorf, for helpful information. Provenance Private ownership, Lower Saxony In Konrad Klapheck’s sketch "Die Forderungen der Moral II“ a typewriter fills the page: the base is greatly expanded, while the keyboard, ribbon spools and roller are heavily compressed. Four Hebrew letters are missing from the keyboard. The forms are rendered in bold charcoal strokes. Fine guiding lines and two red axes, which intersect in the centre of the page, reveal the structural framework. Ype Koopmans describes this framework of lines as a method Klapheck uses to rein in his emotions, in effect “the straitjacket of his painting” (Ype Koopmans, in: Konrad Klapheck in Museum MORE, accompanying video ‘Venus ex Machina’, Museum MORE, 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3FzHb49FH4, accessed 16.10.2026, trans. by the author). “For years, I had eliminated everything that looked like work. I had tried to give my paintings the appearance of not being man-made, as if they had fallen, fully formed, from the sky. […] So today, too, I submit my drawings to the public in the hope of being better understood, and in the belief that one must acknowledge one’s weaknesses in order to gain strength.” (Konrad Klapheck, Retrospective 1955–1985, exhib.cat., Hamburger Kunsthalle et al., Munich 1985, p.26 ff.) A Keystone typewriter served as the model. In 1982, Klapheck painted the subject in two versions, one in greyish brown and one in shades of green. The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the greyish-brown version, which was exhibited in 2021 in the exhibition “Venus ex Machina” at Museum More in Gorssel/The Netherlands.