Peter Knapp’s photography takes over the Stämpfli Foundation

The multifaceted Peter Knapp will be taking center stage at the Stämpfli Foundation’s upcoming exhibition, L’homme est partout, opening on 20 November and which will be picking up the torch from Jacques Monory’s paintings. This will be the Foundation’s sixth exhibit and, for the very first time, it will be dedicated to photography, in which Knapp is an international guiding light, with a solid career in the fashion, editorial and art worlds.

Peter Knapp’s career as a photographer has encompassed many different formats, styles and disciplines. He began as a fashion photographer, in charge of art direction for Elle magazine, and he has worked on diverse object, landscape, nature, portrait or body series which, on occasions, have been accompanied by texts and scratched or retouched images.

L’homme est partout presents a sampling of his work, revolving around approximately eighty pieces from different collections and selected by the artist himself. The show will fill the Foundation’s Room 2 and 3, while Room 1 will continue to house a selection from the general collection. The show will be coordinated by Ferran Martínez Sancho.

Born in Bäretswil (Switzerland) in 1931, although he has been living in Paris since he was a young man, Peter Knapp studied graphic design and photography at the School of Arts and Trades in Zurich, and architecture and drawing in Paris. In 1957, he had his first personal exhibition and two years later, he began his career as a fashion photographer, becoming artistic director for Elle during two periods: 1960-66 and 1974-77. In the sixties, he began to make TV films, including the outstanding Dim Dam Dom (1965-70), De Bach à Bartok (1996-98) and Vincent Van Gogh, les derniers jours à Auvers (2006), as well as the videos Negatif / Positif (2000) or Minuit à Fécamp (2002) and installations like Puits de lumière (2005). He has also done typography and graphic design work for the press and publications. At the start of his career, he also painted abstract and material canvases.

Peter Knapp’s exhibition is the sixth organized by the Stämpfli Foundation since it was inaugurated in spring of 2011. The artists Erró, Jacques Villeglé, Miguel Chevalier and Jacques Monory, as well as the dozen of Cinetik ! pieces, were featured at the center’s previous shows.