Michael Kunze

Michael Kunze (b. 1961, Munich, lives and works in Berlin) creates paintings undergirded by Central European intellectualism. They are often inspired by works from the 15th to the 18th Centuries, and driven by ideals and metaphysics. Kunze eschews the received ‘story’ of modern art, preferring instead to look to what has been described as ‘the Shadow-Line of Modernism’, a kind of anti-modern modernity that traces an arc from the isolated masters of painting in the 20th Century, such as Bacon, De Chirico and Balthus, through to influential directors such as Lars von Trier. Kunze’s complex, architectonic worlds hide many secrets. They are also paradoxical: the labyrinthine structures in the midst of Arcadian landscapes being at one and the same time arcane and futuristic, holding both time frames in a sole pictorial plane. We sense that there is a certain reality here, but it is not one to be found through physical exploration, rather through the activation of our imagination.

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Exhibition at Nicolas Krupp - 2020

Michael Kunze: The Last Tango in Thule

4 September - 14 November 2020

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Exhibition at Nicolas Krupp - 2015

Michael Kunze: Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand

30 April - 27 June 2015

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Exhibition at Nicolas Krupp - 2012

Michael Kunze: Studien zur Entstehung einer Ungeduld

2 November - 29 December 2012

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Exhibition at Nicolas Krupp - 2007

Michael Kunze: Gewalt gegen Ding im Kopf

4 May - 30 June 2007

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Michael Kunze

Press
Michael Kunze

Publications
  • Michael Kunze Schmetterlings Uhr / Butterfly Clock, 2022

    Oil on canvas
    190 × 160 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne I, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    200 x 330 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne II, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    200 x 330 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne III, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    200 x 140 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne IV, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    160 x 115 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne V, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    85 x 100 cm

         Michael Kunze Der letzte Tango in Thule, Rue Jules Verne VI, 2020

    Oil on canvas
    85 x 100 cm

         Michael Kunze Solarplexus / Solar Plexus, 2019

    Oil on canvas
    220 x 200 cm

         Michael Kunze Atem / Breathe, 2019

    Oil on canvas
    85 x 95 cm

         Michael Kunze Zungenstabilisator / Tongue Stabilizer, 2019

    Oil on canvas
    200 x 330 cm

         Michael Kunze Word against Life, Image for Thing II, 2019

    Oil on canvas
    60 × 60 cm

         Michael Kunze Hapax legomenon Astrapez, 2018

    Oil on canvas
    170 x 125 cm

         Michael Kunze Erde Richtung Auge/ Earth in Direction of Eye, 2018

    Oil on canvas
    200 × 180 cm

    Photo: Ludger Paffrath

         Michael Kunze Einer blinzelt immer/ One Always Blinks, 2018

    Oil on canvas
    210 × 180 cm

    Photo: Ludger Paffrath

         Michael Kunze Blende / Screen, 2017

    Oil on canvas
    240 x 210 cm

    Photo: Ludger Paffrath

         Michael Kunze Zirrostrat, 2016

    Oil on canvas
    240 x 210 cm

         Michael Kunze Kontakt-Eklipt / Contact-Eclipt, 2016

    Oil on canvas
    200 x 180 cm

         Michael Kunze S!T!O!P!P!,I, 2016

    Oil on canvas
    180 x 160 cm

         Michael Kunze Schule Eingang, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    240 x 210 cm

         Michael Kunze Schule Ausgang, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    230 x 200 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand I, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    180 x 160 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand II, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    170 x 125 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand III, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    105 x 95 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand IV, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    105 x 95 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand V, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    80 x 70 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand VI, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    95 x 80 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand VII, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    95 x 80 cm

         Michael Kunze Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand VIII, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    90 x 80 cm

         Michael Kunze Hapax legomenon Knauf, 2015

    Oil on canvas
    170 x 125 cm

         Michael Kunze Atelier/Grenze Messina, 2014

    Oil on canvas
    205 x 175 cm

         Michael Kunze Atelier/Grenze II, 2014

    Oil on canvas
    250 x 200 cm

         Michael Kunze Atelier/Columba Antapex, 2014

    Oil on canvas
    340 x 240 cm (in 2 parts, each: 170 x 240 cm)

         Michael Kunze Schlag auf innere Uhr/Ausgang, 2014

    Oil on canvas
    230 x 200 cm

         Michael Kunze Grenze vor ohne Falke Ping, 2014

    Oil on canvas
    230 x 200 cm

         Michael Kunze Atelier/Grenze Sorrent, 2013

    Oil on canvas
    340 x 240 cm (in 2 parts, each: 170 x 240 cm)

         Michael Kunze Cameo 798144, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    95 x 85 cm

         Michael Kunze Cameo 117652, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    80 x 65 cm

         Michael Kunze Cameo 284939, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    105 x 65 cm

         Michael Kunze Atelier / Mare Prosa, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    275 x 205 cm

         Michael Kunze Cameo 620023, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    120 × 85 cm

         Michael Kunze Cameo 777123, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    120 × 85 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab 1, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 × 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab 3, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 × 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab 4, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 × 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab 5, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 × 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab 6, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 × 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Blitz / Grab VI, 2012

    Oil on canvas
    50 x 40 cm

         Michael Kunze Die Überlebenden / The Survivors, 2011

    Oil on canvas
    290 x 230 cm

         Michael Kunze Gelenk / Joint, 2007

    Oil on canvas
    75 x 65 cm

         Michael Kunze Echo anhalten, Luft ausatmen, 2007

    Oil on canvas
    80 x 70 cm

         Michael Kunze Einschlaftrick B / Trick to Fall Asleep B, 2007

    Oil on canvas
    100 × 85 cm

         Michael Kunze In den Wald / Into the Forest, 2007

    Oil on canvas
    70 x 50 cm

         Michael Kunze Brandung / Surf, 2007

    Oil on canvas
    70 x 100 cm

         Michael Kunze Balthus / Man Ray, 2006

    Les Messieurs d'Avignon
    Oil on canvas
    60 x 50 cm

    Balthus, aufgenommen von Man Ray, 1933, (Nach einer Abbildung aus: Claude Roy, Balthus, Leben und Werk, München 1996, S. 9).

         Michael Kunze Ingmar Bergman (3), 2006

    Les Messieurs d'Avignon
    Oil on canvas
    70 x 50 cm

         Michael Kunze Luis Buñuel (1), 2006

    Les Messieurs d'Avignon
    Oil on canvas
    70 x 55 cm

    Am Strand von Cadaques, 1929, während eines Urlaubs mit Salvador Dali. (Nach einer Abbildung aus: Krohn / Duncan, Luis Bunuel, Sämtliche Filme, Köln 2005, S. 18).

         Michael Kunze Giorgio de Chirico (1), 2006

    Les Messieurs d'Avignon
    Oil on canvas
    85 x 75 cm

    Nach: Giorgio de Chirico, Selbstbildnis mit Kopf des Merkur, 1924; Antonello da Messina, Verkündigung, Palermo, Museo Nazionale; und Giorgio de Chirico, Das Rätsel der Ankunft, 1912. (Nach 3 Abbildungen aus: Giorgio de Chirico – Der Metaphysiker, München 1982, S. 21 und S. 212).
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