Peter Klasen

Peter Klasen (born 1935 in Lübeck, Germany) has lived and worked in Paris since 1959. A major figure of the French Nouvelle Figuration and Figuration Narrative movements, he developed a distinctive visual language combining the imagery of industrial and urban environments with fragmented representations of the human body. His paintings, photographs and sculptures draw on the visual language of advertising, mass media and everyday life, rendered with a precise, almost photographic finish.
Klasen’s work is characterized by stark contrasts between sensual and mechanical imagery. Industrial objects such as locks, grids, doors, gauges and machinery are juxtaposed with fragments of the female body, creating images that explore themes of desire, confinement, technology and the increasingly standardized environment of modern life. His use of airbrush, collage and sharply delineated forms gives his work a cool, highly controlled aesthetic that has become characteristic of his practice.