Despite the incredible precision and perceived aloofness of his depictions, Konrad Klapheck's works always carry a subtle humor and remarkable human warmth. His machines are both familiar and strange, almost personified, raising questions about identity and social order. The present “Stunde des Gerichts” (Hour of Judgment) from 1961 is an early work in which he stages one of his “ten main objects”: the faucet (cf. Konrad Klapheck, Meine Gegenstände, 1973).
In one of the most famous works from this series, “Die Sexbombe und ihr Begleiter” (The Sex Bomb and Her Companion) from 1963, he depicts the entire fixture, including hose and spray head, with one part of the faucet symbolizing the woman and another part the man.
From the artist's writings, we also know what he associated with the faucet, and with bathrooms in general: "Bathrooms had always attracted me. How much physical history they contained, what a sensual encounter with one's own physicality they offered!“ He describes his family's bathrooms as ”places of delight" (cf. Konrad Klapeck, Warum ich male, 1984).


In “Stunde des Gerichts” from 1961, a close-up of two taps in different colors is shown, presumably one warm and one cold, which, similar to “Die Sexbombe und ihr Begleiter,” can be interpreted as representing female and male parts. Along with the title, however, another level of meaning opens up here, because the shape of the taps is reminiscent of a court bell, which serves to call for order in the courtroom during proceedings. It almost seems as if this association is meant to be a call for dispute resolution between the sexes, although, as is so often the case, the final interpretation is left to the viewer.

Even at the time of its creation, “Stunde des Gerichtes” must have emanated that special fascination and appeal that permeates Konrad Klapheck’s entire oeuvre. The work featured the early comprehensive Klapheck exhibition at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover in 1966. It was once owned by the legendary New York art dealer Leo Castelli, who had contracted Andy Warhol in 1964. Castelli visited Konrad Klapheck in his studio in Germany in 1962, purchasing four of his paintings and thus recognizing the outstanding quality of Klapheck's painting even before the American artist was discovered. At the time, Klapheck anticipated elements of Pop Art and Photorealism. [AR]