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But these are only distant references in the history of
someone involved in the struggle for human rights and
against established authority and in the defense of a
free society, culture and nature.
We could point to two clear stages in Kappeler's artistic development that are closely linked to different
periods of his life and to specific moments in the soci-
al and cultural history of our continent. The first began
at the end of the 1950's when he went to Hannover
University to study architecture, and culminated with
his appointment as Professor of Painting and Graphic
Art at the university's School of Architecture. This was
a period of great crises in Europe, of the debate between capitalism and communism, of emmigrant wor
kers in Germany, of May 68, of the discovery of the
East, of the communes, etc. Kappeler's work, with an
eminently figurative language and great quality in its
drawing and application of colour, clearly expresses
this.
From the 1970's onwards Kappeler has allowed the
painting to flow by itself, has allowed denotation to give
way to connotation, and the theme and painting form
an alliance in which plastic quality predominates over
the subject matter. As Dieter Ronte pointed out, his
themes have become more autobiographical and have
taken on another dimension which is more expressive
yet also more hermetic, in which colour and gesture
have become the predominant features.
I believe there are different factors that have led to this
maturing process: the social and political changes that
have taken place in Europe throughout these years,
the moving of his workshop to Butjadingen, next to the
North Sea, and his complete devotion to art. |
