Graham
Knuttel was born in Dublin in 1954. Initially renowned
for his large wooden mechanical animated sculptures,
Knuttel’s figurative paintings are now acclaimed
internationally. He paints into an urban landscape
to which he himself belongs, favouring dark and
dangerous scenes, which reflect the fears, doubts
and hopes he feels himself. It is on canvas that
Knuttel fights his battles, the tensions and moods
brilliantly portrayed on the faces of his subjects,
his wicked sense of humour evident throughout. Knuttel
returns constantly to still life in his work, inspired
by its potential for simplicity and bringing him
back to his early studies of Cezanne and Picasso.
Graham Knuttel’s work is
held in public and private collections worldwide.
Collectors include Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone,
Bertie Ahern and Joanna Lumley as well as Swiss
Bank Corporation, Allied Irish Banks, Goldman Sachs
International and Saatchi & Saatchi London.
“When I was eighteen, I started at art school. I
had always had an interest in figurative work, in
the portrayal of the human condition, and from an
early age I was familiar with the work of Van Gogh,
Cezanne and Picasso. In art school I was attracted
to the life drawing room where I determined to develop
my skills as a figurative painter. I found myself
to be an intuitive painter. I had little patience
for the intellectual processes and conclusions involved
with abstract and conceptual art. For me, to paint
what I saw or felt or imagined around me should
be a simple affair, painted from the gut.”
Graham Knuttel
“My parents came to Ireland in 1947 from Bedford
in England where my father had served with the R.A.F.
My grandfather was a stone quarry owner in Dresden,
Germany but my father and grandmother came to England
after the 1st World War.
My father is a strange eccentric man, but he has
nothing on his mother. I met her only once when
I was four of five but the memory will never leave
me. She was very tall and thin with a hook like
nose not dissimilar to my own. Her cheeks were hollow,
whitened with powder and highlighted with rouge.
She was dressed all in black, except for a white
lace frill at her neck. The sight of her beside
my father's huge dark wardrobe sent me into a state
of total hysteria. There being no one else in the
room, she tried to lock me in the wardrobe. I can
still hear her cackling and feel her long white
claws at the back of my neck. I often look at my
drawings of birds with which I have had a long obsession,
and I wonder. I’m glad that I managed to find some
sort of humour in what I firmly believe was a very
close call. I think she might easily have strangled
me and possibly eaten me had not my cries been heard.
She was returned that same day to Margate where
she lived in a guesthouse surrounded by her collection
of stuffed animals, until her death in 1962.”
Graham Knuttel
“My mother’s family were more normal. Many of my
summer holidays were spent at their house in Northampton.
We went to England two or three times a year and
I remember the atmosphere of that journey very well.
We took The Princess Maud, a steam-ship notorious
for its creaking and rolling, packed as it was in
those days, with emigrant faces. We made the journey
at night with a three-hour wait at dawn in Crewe
Station for a connection. Under the grime and soot
it was a magnificent building with its ornate brickwork
and cast and wrought iron. In many ways the scenes
were reminiscent of the air raid drawings of Henry
Moore. Today when I draw people, I draw in caricature;
railway porters I have seen asleep on mail bags,
weary, worried men and women, busy and intent on
that awful survival.”
Graham Knuttel
Graham Knuttel’s bold
use of colour and form and the narrative tensions
which wind their way through all his work, make
him a true story teller. Knuttel's works are instantly
recognizable, making him one of Ireland’s most popular
and collectable living artists of our time.
25th March 2010 Solo Show at the Irish
Club / Barbara Stanley Gallery
