Düsseldorf artist Konrad Klapheck died on July 30 at the age of 88. In an unmistakable style, he treated the theme of the machine as a metaphor of human relations since the mid-1950s. A special characteristic of this creative phase spanning four decades is the sober precision and linearity of his visual language: the idiosyncratic fusion of Objectivity, Pop and Surrealism.

In his stage-like pictorial spaces, everyday apparatuses such as sewing machines, typewriters, irons, and bicycles become actors in enigmatic dramas. In addition to characteristic tipping moments between mysticism and melancholy, the humorous work titles also play a central role. This is exemplified by the oil painting "Die Sexbombe und ihr Begleiter" (The Sex Bomb and Her Companion, 1963), which was on view in the "Aspects" section of the Fridericianum in 1964 as part of Klapheck's first documenta participation. It shows a shiny chrome bathroom set with faucet and shower head-or in the artist's words, a female movie star with a stocky, financially powerful companion in a black suit.

Two more times Klapheck's machine paintings were shown at the documenta in Kassel: in 1968 and 1977.

Konrad Klapheck was the son of the art historian and critic Anna Klapheck (1899-1986). He studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1954 to 1958 under Bruno Goller (a participant in documenta 2) and later became professor of free painting there himself (from 1997 to 2002).