Pierre Knop

Pierre Knop (b. 1982, Nancy, France) is based in Cologne.

From cosy interiors to magnificent landscapes, Pierre Knop is a maker of vibrant tableaux. The artist begins each painting with an image from his personal archive, whether a personal photo or a scrap of art history, transmuting these small pictures into grander vistas. Knop’s process allows him to work on several canvases at once, resulting in groups of paintings that share palettes and atmospheres.

Referencing a diverse range of artists, from Nicolas Poussin or Caspar David Friedrich to Pierre Bonnard, as well as contemporary photography, Knop extends the tradition of European landscape painting. While figures small or large often populate his paintings, architecture is also a key motif in his work, from residences with vast alpine views to cabins or hotels dwarfed by a backdrop of mountains. Often infused with a sly wit and a sense of menace, his paintings are embedded with fragments of unresolved narratives, with hints that something might soon go awry. A tree takes on its own abstract form, a tsunami rises out of nowhere to engulf some bystanders, a puff of smoke rises into the sky as a gigantic arabesque. In Silvester Baptiste (2024), a small boy splashes around in a puddle under a canopy of red branches. Based on a photograph of the artist’s son, the painting conveys the boy’s enchantment with the rippling colours and reflections, and yet the red sky might indicate a sense of alarm, or even delight, with the world. At once light-hearted and sublime, the artist always takes the viewer on a playful journey.