Robert
Knoke

BLACK MATERIAL

PAINTING

Robert Knoke is a German artist born in Hannover whose large-scale drawings have gained worldwide recognition for redefining portraiture in the 21st century. Working between Hannover, New York City, and Paris, Knoke has developed a distinctive practice that exists between drawing and painting, combining figuration with abstraction through delicate lines, smeared fingerprints, and brutal punches of color. His approach to portraiture is not illustrative or defined by context but rather uses the human figure as a point of departure to explore the medium of drawing itself. Knoke photographs his subjects—artists, musicians, designers, and cultural figures—during informal first-time meetings, carefully directing posture and facial expression before working in solitude to create drawings that are as much about abstraction as they are about likeness. Since beginning his portrait series in 1991 and first exhibiting publicly in 2005, his work has been shown in galleries, projected in nightclubs and at concerts, and featured in his monograph Black Material (2010), which was presented at the New Museum in New York. His subjects have included Patti Smith, Marc Jacobs, Debbie Harry, Rick Owens, Bret Easton Ellis, Gilbert & George, and numerous other personalities shaping contemporary culture.