The Capitulation 1966

Konrad Klapheck made this strange painting of a telephone with smooth paint, carefully blended to give an almost hyper-real quality. The telephone itself is an odd shape, but it’s the telephone cord, snaking around the table and chair legs that grabs my attention. It’s so round and springy, coiling around and down to some unknown location just beyond our view. Klapheck used color and form here in a way that suggests an inner psychological state. The whole picture has a kind of sterile, dream-like vibe. The background is a hazy yellow, the shadows are soft and undefined. It reminds me a little of de Chirico, another surrealist who knew how to make the ordinary look deeply unsettling. Art is an ongoing conversation, right? It feels like Klapheck picked up the phone and had a good chat with him!