Michael Kunze

Michael Kunze is a German artist who produces paintings grounded in Central European intellectualism.

Biography of Michael Kunze

Michael Kunze was born in Munich, Germany, in 1961. From 1981 to 1984, he studied Art History and Musicology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Later, the artist continued his studies at Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, which he attended from 1985 to 1991.  

Michael Kunze received a Scholarship from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1988 and a Scholarship from the Foundation Kunstfonds Bonn in 1992. 

In 2013, the artist obtained Certification of Old Greek (Graecum) at Grammar School Heese in Berlin. Five years later, in 2018, Kunze was awarded Hans Platschek Price for Art and Writing.

Michael Kunze's solo exhibitions include "Something Surreal" (with Josef Bolf, curated by Jane Neal) at DSC Gallery Prague in Czech Republic (2022), "The Last Tango in Thule II" at Galerie Nicolas Krupp in Basel (2020), "Through the Mind’s Eye" (with Santiago Giralda) at Galerie ISA in Mumbai (2020), "Passion Tagwache, niedriger Sonnenstand" at Galerie Nicolas Krupp in Basel (2015), and many more.

Currently, the artist lives in Berlin, where he continues to work. 

Michael Kunze's Art Style

Inspired by works spanning the 15th to the 18th centuries, Michael Kunze's paintings are driven by ideals and metaphysics. Kunze rejects the conventional narrative of modern art, opting instead for what has been termed "the Shadow-Line of Modernism" — an anti-modern modernity tracing an arc from 20th-century isolated painting masters like Francis Bacon, Giorgio de Chirico, and Balthus to influential directors such as Lars von Trier.

Kunze's intricate, architectonic worlds conceal numerous secrets and paradoxes. The labyrinthine structures amid Arcadian landscapes simultaneously exude an arcane and futuristic quality, encompassing both time frames within a single pictorial plane.