Above …

My passion for drawing and painting brought me to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1987. There I studied painting for ten semesters in the class of Prof. Robin Page, followed by another two semesters as a master student under Robin.
During my studies at the Munich Academy of Art, my passion was photorealism. At that time, I created a series of portraits of homeless people in Munich, among other things.
In addition to drawing, I am very interested in complementary color painting, which has resulted in a series of experimental pictures in recent years. These works show a combination of realistic painting and complementary color grids and convey a three-dimensional or spatial impression when viewed.
Since the beginning of 2022, I have been concentrating on landscape painting. Different interpretations of landscapes - graphically highly reduced, realistic to spontaneous - show series of large, small and mini picture formats.

I live and work with the painter Sandra Kolondam near Landshut in Bavaria.

I regularly inform you about current exhibitions and new paintings in my blog or via my newsletter .
All works can be purchased directly here in my online shop.

If you are interested in my larger paintings, personal delivery and a test hanging are possible after consultation.
Just send me an inquiry by email, I will reply immediately.

For further information on current and past exhibitions, see also News

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work review

By Dr. Ingrid Gardill, art historian ©

AND CLOSE OBSERVATION

When you enter the studio of the draftsman, graphic artist and painter Klaus Soppe, you find yourself in a world of your own. The visitor is surrounded by works that make the serious and deep struggle for the laws of drawing and painting and their exploitation tangible - the technical virtuosity that the artist brings to the table as a matter of course comes, among other things, from a solid training as a poster painter and calligrapher. The works are clearly characterized by the desire and almost unbridled joy of discovery and experimentation. This also explains the rapid development from high-contrast, hyper-realistic, classical figurative painting to free combination and play with complementary colors, against which, depending on the implementation, some motifs almost dissolve or come to the fore in a three-dimensional way.

There is a pinch of irony and humor in each of the paintings - Klaus Soppe was, after all, a master student and employee of the rebel, Fluxus and conceptual artist Robin Page at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Through him, he not only gained a deep insight into the techniques of painting, but also learned how important and necessary it is to keep finding new paths to lightness with this solid basis in his luggage.

The artist finds his inspiration in everyday life. As a socially and politically aware person, he noticed how much dignity some of the homeless in the cities exude. To get to the bottom of this observation, he talked to them and asked them to pose. This resulted in the expressive portrait series of the "Stadtstreicher" with a total of 9 pictures. It illuminates the individual nature of the people and gives them an almost solemn style.

COLOR EXPERIMENTS AND COMPLEMENTARY PAINTING

After the turn of the millennium, Klaus Soppe increasingly dealt with the phenomenon of the effect of color on perception. He created a series of back nudes whose liveliness of the skin surface comes from contrasting cold and warm tones. He places them on a monochrome background, which he partially strokes with the complementary tone (e.g. blue / orange-red). This initially creates a flicker that only dissolves in the distance and reveals an atmospherically effective space. The special effect, however, is that the back nude stands out so strongly in plastic terms that it seems as if it were close enough to touch. The three-dimensional appearance is created exclusively by the complementary grid. The painter achieves the outstanding modeling less with light and dark gradations than with cold and warm contrasts.

Inspired by Paul Cézanne's apple still lifes, he did finger exercises and further color experiments with the complementary grids. In doing so, Klaus Soppe, like the pointillists, makes the pure colors shine through targeted placement in the grid. In this series called "Variations of Paul's Apples," the artist often uses strong, almost garish colors that are reminiscent of Pop Art. As a result, he himself likes to refer to his paintings with a wink as Pop Neo-Impressionism.

CHILDHOOD TOPICS

In “Utopia” the artist smiles at us as a small boy, surrounded by toys, symbolic objects and sitting in front of a canvas, which in turn forms a bridge to the present. The phantom image of the father, whom the artist never got to know, puts a protective hand on his shoulder. The desire for security and recognition, but also reconciliation with the past, come to life in the picture. The child on the canvas shows Klaus Soppe's older brother, whom he captured in the work “Brave Boy” at a moment when he bravely faced danger with a knife. Here a short but formative moment in the biography is frozen in a shockingly dramatic way. “Operation Hurricane” goes even further back into the past and can be read as a homage to the artist's mother. It shows her as a young, pregnant woman in the cone of light from the sky, while bombs fall on the ruins of Duisburg around her. This air raid by the Allies was considered one of the heaviest in Germany. Klaus Soppe awakens memories of the stories of his mother and grandmother, who spent many nights seeking refuge in the air raid shelter. However, he does not portray them as victims, but as a radiant woman who has mastered it all. The delicately glazed, in places transparent-looking paint application also contrasts symbolically with the pasty, monochrome hail of bombs that emerges from the raster lines in the background.

BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE

But the artist does not stop at his "hunger for colors" and the skillful exploration of their effect. The choice of motifs that he presents with his ever-evolving technique is at least as important. Here, Klaus Soppe draws from the source of his own life. He illuminates the depths of his story, with its lights, shadows and faults. In the process of artistic exploration, one's own buried memories can be awakened and often overcome. The multiple layers of time and narrative are condensed in the paintings through different spatial and perceptual levels and symbolic metaphors. This type of pictorial storytelling is reminiscent of the Leipzig school around Neo Rauch. But Klaus Soppe has developed his own unmistakable style in it.

LIGHT EFFECTS AND REDUCTION

Less dramatic, but just as masterfully staged and artistically executed is the large landscape format "Parallel World", in which a young girl looks curiously through the letterbox slot of a front door. The bright light from the apartment falls over her lost profile and brings the work very close to the chiaroscuro painting of the Dutch Caravaggists of the 16th century, who used light and dark effects in such a way that the faces of the protagonists were intensely illuminated by a concealed light source. At the same time, Klaus Soppe achieves a special mood of intimacy and mystery in the scene. But it is not just the dramaturgy of the light that is convincing, but also the many small details that are masterfully executed, omitting everything unimportant.

It is all the more surprising how the artist manages all this, even though he has reduced his palette to just 4 or 5 color values. With this limitation, he creates an extremely impressive clarity that makes his compositions really shine. Klaus Soppe also succeeds in creating tension between the gridded, ornamental background and the realistically executed figuration, in maintaining the fine transparency of the paintings, in using the sensitive line that comes from the drawing for painting and in doing so expanding the boundaries of color theory in an experimental and joyful way. In this way, he presents the viewer with a virtuoso, unconventional, narratively captivating oeuvre. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Vita

1961 Born in Duisburg

1977 to 1980 Training as a window dresser and poster painter / calligrapher

1981 to 1982 Head of the Graphic Department of the Bundeswehr Printing Office Adenau

1982 to 1987 Working as a window dresser & calligrapher

from 1984 first drafts and concepts for shop fittings and shop designs

In 1987 he began studying painting and applied graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Prof. Robin Page.
During his studies he worked freelance as an illustrator.
Various publications of illustrations for

FOCUS Magazin Verlag,
Südwest-Verlag,
Calig-Verlag
Siemens AG
as well as for BMW AG, among others

1990 one-year painting collaboration with Prof. Robin Page, during this time the 16-part picture series of the “Bluebeard Amuseum Collection” by Robin Page is created

1990 Art Scholarship from the Danner Foundation

1991 Art scholarship from the Fanny Carlita Foundation

1991 Dealing with the subject of portrait and the creation of the portrait series “Munich City Tramp”

1992 to 1993 Master student of Prof. Robin Page

1993 Diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in Painting and Applied Graphics

Since 1989, freelance work as a painter and designer.
Since then, larger design concepts have also emerged, including:
for the research department of SIEMENS AG in 1997 on the occasion of its 150th anniversary at the ICC Berlin.
Further design and layout concepts as well as brand developments for retail.

1995 Birth of daughter Anna

1998 Birth of twin sons Jakob & Felix

2011 to 2018 Lecturer at the Montessori Technical College for Design

since 1990 various solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad

2018 to 2019 Board member of the Munich Artists' Cooperative 1868

since 2018 member of the Munich Künstlerhausverein at Lenbachplatz8

2019 Creation of the seven-part picture series Pula, Croatian Adriatic coast

… continue with News

Image rights, above: ©Philipp Hobucher, www.philipphobucher.de