April 27 2002, Saturday, 10am-6pm
COLOURFUL PAINTINGS - ON REAL CIRCUS CANVAS, BY WIDELY TRAVELLED SWISS ARTIST - ROLF KNIE - HELPS REVEAL WILD ANIMALS AT REST, CIRCUS LIFE AND "RICH AND FAMOUS"
In Switzerland, many people have
heard of the "Knie Circus." It was started in 1903 by the father of Rolf Knie -
a Swiss artist, in his early fifties, that we interviewed earlier this week at
the beginning of his one-week, one-man art show at a gallery in London's Cork
Street. We met and chatted with him, while he was busy autographing prints and
chatting amicably to his guests. He spoke to each of them - making sure each
name he dedicated a print to, was spelt correctly. In the short time we were in
the gallery we heard him speak English, French and German. Spanish is another of
the languages he speaks well, having moved from Switzerland to Mallorca in 1989.
Eight years later, in 1997, he was to have another of his successful exhibitions
in another Spanish-speaking country - Uruguay. In that same year he designed the
Lounge of the Hotel Grand Plaza on the other side of the world, in Singapore.
And his enthusiastic, acrobatic travelling around the world did not stop there! Also, in 1997 - a year before Walt Disney's "Animal Kingdom" opened, he designed the animals for the "Animal Kingdom Theme Park." Animals is very much what a lot of his art is about. Elephants, tigers and plenty of horses, from what we could see on the two floors of the gallery, had brought to life on a mixture of materials that included circus canvas and paper. One picture that caught our eye, entitled "Horse Carousel" was priced at £7,700. and another one was "Circus Quartet", priced at £14,300. In the gallery's basement one can find some of the artists other paintings including the rich and famous, like Paloma Picasso. As for the circus, we all know it is very international and not limited to any one language or country. Visit the exhibition for yourself and you - too, will feel that you are travelling around the world on what can only be described as an artistic circus of discovery. Location: Arndean Gallery, 23 Cork Street, London, W1. Tube station: Green Park (Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines).
