Jan Künster
Jan Künster, born in Bonn, Germany, in 1951, studied at the Cologne Art School and successfully completed training as an advertising graphics specialist. He subsequently headed an advertising agency, but turned himself exclusively to art painting in the early 1980s.
His fascinating horse paintings led to great international success within a very short period of time. With a unique style the paintings are likewise harmo
niously as well as dynamic. They reflect the movement as a horse’s innate element and are characterized by a thoroughly positive charisma, which is represented to the viewer.
Even as a child painting was his great passion. In his youth, Jan Künster spent a lot of time with his Dutch grandmother in Amsterdam, where he studied the old masters in the museums and watched the street painters on the famous Amsterdam Rembrandt Plain.
In the year 1976, the artist’s first individual exhibition took place in Bonn, Germany, with his charcoal drawings on the topic “Faces”. Inspired by his own horses, he finally discovered these noble creatures as painting and study objects.
Shortly after exhibiting his horse paintings for the first time at the Vechta elite auction, 1982, they were presented at Paul Schockemöhles PSI elite auction in Ankum. In the same year an individual exhibition took place at the gallery of Helga Capellman in Aachen. Numerous exhibitions ensued: Aachen, Hamburger Derby, Goodwood, Calgary, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich, Windsor, London, Paris, ……..
In the year 1993, a comprehensive presentation of his art works took place at the Nörvenich castle museum in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with 1000 invited guests under the auspices of the former Bundestags President Professor Rita Süssmuth. More than 100 exhibits were displayed and the guests were culinary delighted by the German celebrity chef Alfons Schuhbeck.
Jan Künster painted many successful horses of numerous well known riders such as Dr. Reiner Klimke (Biotpo), Nadine Capellmann (Gracioso), Nicole Uphoff (Rembrandt) and Klaus Balkenhohl (Goldstern). He painted the World Champion Isabell Werth’s famous horse “Gigolo” and portrayed “El Alamein”, the former US Presidents favourite stallion as well as the famous race horse “Northern Taste” for the owner of the largest racehorse stable of Japan. His paintings are to be found in the offices and the Royal Stables of Oman as well as in homes of the members of the British royal house.
Once a year, the stallion of the year is painted by Jan Künster on behalf of the State Stud of Warendorf for the assignment of the Stallion Breeders Award. Furthermore, the renowned vehicle manufacturer Böckmann decorates their horse trailers and transporters with the exclusive design of Jan Künster.
Jan Künster’s paintings range from realistic to abstract, and from acrylics to watercolours. His great passion belongs to large-scale paintings (3 x 4 meter and even bigger) dealing with the myth of the horse in abstract realism. This kind of artworks are very complex and time consuming what makes the paintings very precious. The artwork “Equitanos” was originated live at Equitana 2007. It consists of 12 canvases, overall comprising an area of 4 x 5 meter. This painting currently can be found at the Robinson Club “Ampflwang” in Austria as a loan.
Apart from horse paintings, Jan Künster created his to date largest work of art on the topics of Water – Earth – Sun, on behalf of the Kampmann group of companies in the Lower Saxon city Lingen. The entrance of their representative administration building is decorated with three truly impressive “Künster-paintings” each in the size of 4 m wide and 14 m high. According to the company’s philosophy the painting “Earth” reflects the elements of life, substance and strength. The “Sun” designed as a red fireball symbolizes light and warmth, “Water” provides life and energy. This gigantic work was created on 128 canvases and comprises about 170 square meters at which the artist worked on for month. For packaging the canvases more than 2 kilometers of foil was used.
For the German National Press Ball the painting called “Altes Bonn” was created covering an area of 16 x 2.8 meters. Furthermore, a gaudy Beethoven logo designed by Jan Künster on behalf of a private-initiated Beethoven Festival, today covers East-West CDs.
On behalf of a charity organizer the artist created the “UNICEF-Horse”. It is completely covered with coloured children’s hands. This horse has been exhibited at numerous events, shows and galas and is signed by various prominent persons like Thomas Gottschalk, Günther Jauch, Vladimir Klitschko, Udo Jürgens, and Roger Moore. The horse was auctioned off in favour of UNICEF by eBay-Germany for the benefit of children affected by the Asian tsunami disaster.
In order to present his paintings, Jan Künster regularly or ganizes major events, for instance at the historical “Sachsen Tower” in Cologne or in front of the impressive backdrop of the Federal Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn, with several hundred invited guests. Apart from his horse paintings large erotic acrylic paintings and portraits from his series “Edition Femmes” are presented here.
Jan Künster’s unconventional golf motifs implement the art of golf sport. He shows movement studies characterized by dynamics and energy. One can almost really feel the power of the golf swing hitting the ball on the Green. The golf paintings were presented at numerous top events like “Linde Masters”, “Porsche Cup”, or “BMW Golf Cup International” with a great response. Golf motifs from Jan Künster are annually awarded to the tournament winners by the tour operators “Robinson Club” and “Aida Cruises”.
In addition to these topics the artist paints pictures with local colour. As a native of Bonn and son of a cologne native he identifies himself completely with the rhenish way of life. In delicate watercolours scenes and views from cologne and his hometown Bonn are portrayed. These objects are very popular because of displaying the rhenish easy way of life in an attractive and decent way.
Inspired by these paintings the “Happy Kitchen Clowns” were originated, demonstrating how work in the kitchen with ease. These clowns guide the viewer through the cookbooks edited by Jan Künster and his wife. A third cookbook with the topic “The Kitchen Clowns travel to Italy” is in progress at present. The reproduced prints and graphics are very popular and, as written in the German noble cooking magazine “Lust auf Genuss”, a pleasure, not only among fans of cooking. Paintings, cookbooks, and graphics from the “Kitchen Clowns” furthermore, were shown in advertising spots at the German lifestyle TV channel “Gusto-TV”.
Books and calendars are published annually by Jan Künster himself. Calendars on the topics of “Horses” and “Colonia” as well as the “Kitchen Clowns” are regularly published. In addition, several birthday calendars are created.
A comprehensive book presentation with 500 invited guests took place at the atmospheric Maritim Hotel in Cologne and was based on the work of “Carneval Colonia”, an adventure book about Cologne and the Cologne carnival painted by Jan Künster. In the following, the art work “Der Zauber des Pegasus”, a book about horses with numerous dynamic illustrations was created. Furthermore, two cook books under the title “Culinaria Colonia” , part 1 and 2 as well as the book “Charisma Colonia” followed. These books are family productions. The texts are written by the artists wife, Milca Künster, the paintings are, of course, created by Jan Künster, the graphic conversion and layout is taken over by the artists son, Moritz Künster, and the rest of the family supports Jan Künster with thousands of creative ideas.
Today parts of Jan Künster’s paintings can be found in museums such as the Museum of European Art in New York an in various private collections all over the world.
Jan Künster lives and works in Bonn, Germany, together with his family, which (at present) consists of three children, two daughters-in-law, two grandchildren, one dog, and three horses.