– Arthouse Clemens Keiffenheim ClemK loves people, especially their faces. He studies them extensively to read the character traits. To express this painterly, may not be expected from him classically "beautiful" portraits. With a self-developed blow up technique, a diverse mix ofmaterials and in up to 15 steps, his works are created.
ClemK first moved to Rome at a young age as a volunteer for the Italowestern Here he gladly proved himself as an esteemed painter during breaks in filming. Even today, this time shimmers in his portraits as if through an atavistic veil.
With affectionate ironic distance he stylizes the powerful Cinemascope close ups of this genre. But even cupboards and objects are not safe from him. 15 cars painted in the style of a "young savage" circled Rome when he left the metropolis again in 1972 to study theater in Cologne and Munich. Work as an assistant director with Fred Zinnemann, Terence Young, and others, and later as an award-winning director initially left no time for his painting ambitions.
Only in 2017, when he settled with a second residence in Vienna, he had enough leisure to devote himself to painting again.
Now an "old savage", he continues his interrupted painting career. His first vernissage in Vienna "Blow up Schutting" on 28.9.2022. A tribute to the very renowned writer Julian Schutting. At the same time pushed more and more his penchant for portrait painting in the foreground. No flattering pictures. But powerful portraits that honestly and unmistakably interpret the character traits of his mostly prominent protagonists. The discreet charm and unobtrusive beauty of atavism transports the viewer like an accomplice into a comforting world where no one needs to hide.
Difficult times provoke atavistic reflexes. Italian friends like to rediscover in the colors the posters of Italowesterns. Striking men and women types, well aware of their charisma.
As a former filmmaker, he prefers a blow up technique discovered especially for himself.
He starts with self-photographed portraits, paints them in miniature, photographs them again, paints over them, enlarges them on canvas. Takes calculated by the enlargements resulting coarser pigmentation and distortions, colored, enlarged and painted over again until he is satisfied. Mostly in the formats 60x80/90x120.
He likes to pick details out of the finished portraits. He calls this the close-up. Like in his film work. Enlarged again, looking for the fascination of the detail not visible to the eye at first sight.
In some paintings, the inner life literally bursts out, not without humor. As, for example, on the relief of a Viennese Heurigengesellschaft whimsically evident.
His refined colorful aesthetics enchant any work into visual delight. From time to time he accepts commissions.