Kurt Knobelsdorf - Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects
Kurt Knobelsdorf - Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects
Kurt Knobelsdorf - Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
kurt knobelsdorf<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 1<br />
9/21/09 9:46:52 PM
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 2<br />
9/21/09 9:46:52 PM
K<br />
K<br />
K<br />
K<br />
K<br />
K<br />
KKK<br />
K<br />
KK<br />
K<br />
kurt knobelsdorf<br />
K<br />
KK<br />
K<br />
K<br />
K<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 3<br />
9/21/09 9:46:53 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 4<br />
9/21/09 9:46:53 PM
steven harvey fine art projects<br />
&<br />
Fred Bancroft<br />
present<br />
KURT KNOBELSDORF<br />
n<br />
Paintings<br />
October 1- October 31, 2009<br />
coleman bancroft llc<br />
35 east 67th street<br />
new york, ny 10065<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 5<br />
9/21/09 9:46:53 PM
published on the occasion of the exhibition:<br />
<strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong>: Paintings<br />
at Coleman Bancroft llc<br />
35 east 67th street<br />
new york, ny 10065<br />
914-419-1799<br />
October 1-October 31, 2009<br />
catalog and exhibition produced by:<br />
steven harvey fine art projects<br />
780 riverside drive, #5aa<br />
new york, ny 10032<br />
212-281-2281<br />
info@shfap.com<br />
www.shfap.com<br />
printed at PS Print<br />
in an edition of 500<br />
designed by shfap<br />
with john haubrich<br />
shfap 6<br />
Cover: Strawberry Hill, 2006, oil on panel, 8 x 8”<br />
Half title page: Fairmont and Girard, 2008, oil on panel, 6 x 8” (detail)<br />
Facing title page: Schuykill House, 2008, oil on panel, 8 x 7 7/8”<br />
Rear cover:: Arby, 2008, oil on panel, 8 x 8”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 6<br />
9/21/09 9:46:57 PM
Back-Up/<br />
Chris Wilcha<br />
When will the seemingly endless inventory of found photographs dry up? With looming eventuality, the family<br />
photo albums, real estate photographs, casting agency head shots, corporate portraiture and every imaginable<br />
form of cast-off printed photography that currently overflows on thrift store shelves, in estate auction<br />
lots and at flea markets and garage sales will be replaced by permanently frozen hard drives, those sleek but<br />
useless data coffins, filled with unrecoverable JPEGS. Have you backed up your digital photos lately?<br />
<strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong> paints from these found analog artifacts or photos he has taken himself. The myth persists<br />
that photographs have the power to steal our souls but <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong>’s paintings have the opposite, restorative<br />
effect. While the amateur snapshots he uses clinically archive what a family member or lover looked<br />
like at a particular moment in time, <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong>’s paintings imbue his anonymous photographic source<br />
material with the feeling of deeply lived experience.<br />
Like the now extinct FotoMats where we dropped off all of that film to be processed and printed, <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong><br />
seems to paint obsolescence itself. Not only does his viscous and layered application of paint and the<br />
distressed surfaces of his canvases make the present tense deliquesce, but he’ll occasionally show his hand,<br />
as in the post-collegiate still life of a prematurely period piece scanner, desktop computer and halogen light,<br />
which are likely bound for a third world e-waste dump. And many of his paintings are rendered in Polaroid<br />
and Kodachrome-ish hues, two recently discontinued film stocks whose vibrant, contrasty images seem to<br />
define the visual texture and color of memory for people born between the 1950s and 1980s.<br />
There’s an implied soundtrack to <strong>Knobelsdorf</strong>’s paintings. You can hear the needle crackle and pop over the<br />
blistering but meditative dub of African Head Charge’s “Off The Beaten Track” or the classic break beat in<br />
the middle of Tony Avalon and the Belairs “Sexy Coffee Pot,” each image evoking a scavenged sonic gem. His<br />
paintings of houses and sometimes banal urban architecture echo the functional neutrality of location scouting<br />
photos for an unmade independent film yet simultaneously swirl with the messy humanity of unseen<br />
occupants. This is a film you want to see projected, in a theater, not on DVD.<br />
Chris Wilcha is a filmmaker. In 2008 he won an Emmy for directing the television series This American Life.<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 7<br />
9/21/09 9:46:57 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 8<br />
9/21/09 9:46:59 PM
Opposite:Yellow House 158th St., 2009, oil on<br />
canvas laid down, 12 1/4 x 12 1/4”<br />
Above:<br />
Mound on Columbus, 2009, oil on cigar<br />
box panel, 10 x 14”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 9<br />
9/21/09 9:46:59 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 10<br />
9/21/09 9:46:59 PM
Above: Auto Salvage Lot III, 2006<br />
oil on panel, 10 x 14 “<br />
Left: Heckman Screen Printing Co., 2005 (detail)<br />
oil on panel, 11 1/2 x 12 1/2”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 11<br />
9/21/09 9:47:01 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 12<br />
9/21/09 9:47:01 PM
Above: Gal in White Dress, 2009, oil on canvas, 10 x 8”<br />
Left: Mountain Street, 2008, oil on panel, 8 x 8 “<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 13<br />
9/21/09 9:47:02 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 14<br />
9/21/09 9:47:02 PM
Above: Camden, New Jersey, oil on cigar boxtop, 6 x 10 3/4 “<br />
Left: Kimberly, 2007, oil on panel, 12 x 12”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 15<br />
9/21/09 9:47:02 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 16<br />
9/21/09 9:47:02 PM
Above: Fruitville Pike, 2006, oil on canvas, 8 x 10”<br />
Left: Alabama, 2007, oil on panel, 10 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches (detail)<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 17<br />
9/21/09 9:47:03 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 18<br />
9/21/09 9:47:03 PM
Opposite: Fort Lauderdale #1, 2007, oil on panel, 11 x 11”<br />
Above: Woman with Sneakers, 2009, oil on canvas, 8 1/8 x 7 7/8”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 19<br />
9/21/09 9:47:05 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 20<br />
9/21/09 9:47:07 PM
Opposite: PS 186, oil on paper laid down, 11 3/4 x 9”<br />
Above: Ocean World, 2006, oil on panel, 8 x 8”<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 21<br />
9/21/09 9:47:09 PM
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 22<br />
Above: Naval Yard, 2009<br />
oil on panel, 9 x 11 “<br />
9/21/09 9:47:11 PM<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK<br />
KK
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 23<br />
9/21/09 9:47:11 PM
shfap 6<br />
shfap 6<br />
knobelsdorf catalog.indd 24<br />
9/21/09 9:47:12 PM
Change language