His coat stayed on, so I was prepared for a short interview. However,
as we drank our coffee I discovered the coat was left on for those interspersed
smoking breaks not for the quick getaway I imagined.
Jonathan Knuttel is not of the ‘look at me I’m obviously an
artist’ sort, but he is a prominent contemporary artist with exhibitions
in The Waldock Gallery in Blackrock, The Oisin Gallery, The Green Gallery
in Stephen’s Green, Vlaams cultureel centrum de Brakke Grand, Amsterdam
and many more.
Although Jonathan attended art classes in school he maintains his father
Peter was his biggest influence. When Jonathan was very young, his father
was a part-time artist and used to explain certain artistic styles and
techniques to him.
Today his father is internationally well-respected as a water colourist
and printmaker. His internationally acclaimed uncle, the painter Graham
Knuttel, was also around a lot as both he and Jonathan’s father
were involved in artistic ventures such as the Lambert Puppet Theatre.
In fact, much of Jonathan’s family are involved in creativity in
some shape or form. On his father’s side there are several architects
and artists such as Thomas Cooper Gotch, co-founder of The Newlyn School
of painting.
The actor Cary Grant is better known in their family as great great uncle
Archie Leach. His brother is a song-writer whose band supported Mundy
recently, his mother has a degree in History of Art and his sister does
pottery on occasion.
A career as an artist then seems like the obvious choice when surrounded
by so much creativity yet he says that: “I kind of drifted into
art because I tried many other avenues that held no interest for me”.
He found that whilst other people got themselves run-of-the-mill jobs
in shops, he spent his school summers painting murals and so on.
I asked Jonathan what he thought of formal versus self-taught training
in general and he told me that “College would have been good fun,
although I don’t think I would necessarily have learned anything
different. With art you can pick up techniques just by trial and error”.
He feels that art colleges don’t prepare you for working as an artist
in real terms and many students would benefit from a business course to
help them become commercially viable. He believes that another important
factor for those starting out is to find a gallery you can have a good
relationship with so that they will invest their time and faith in you.
He taught himself to paint in the style he does today, taking further
inspiration from German Expressionist painters such as Kirchner, Otto
Mueller, Emil. These painters attracted him because of their rebellious
attitude in ignoring religious and political pressure to paint historical
events and instead focused on form and colour.
Other inspiration comes from everyday sources such as snippets of conversations,
the humour in a situation, news, the bleakness of life, the battle of
the sexes, friends’ opinions on certain issues and popular culture
in general.
Jonathan paints at home and often starts painting in the morning around
nine and finishes late into the night as he finds that when he gets immersed
in a painting it’s hard to stop. He doesn’t like to intellectualise
his paintings too much, believing that people can catch a glimpse into
the social interaction and behaviour of people through his paintings and
discuss its meaning in the future.
He thinks Ireland is a good place to be an artist because Irish people
are interested in arts and culture and in London or New York there is
more competition from other artists and less support.
As to whether he had any particularly fortunate breaks or not, he believes
it was persistence and thick skin that allowed him get where he is today.
Every exhibition has helped him develop his career, from his very first
one in The Globe on George’s Street. He has been invited to exhibit
at a Christmas show called the Florence bi-annual for 2005.
If you are interested
in seeing some more of Jonathan’s paintings you can visit his website
www.jknuttel.com
Above: Girl with Cat by Jonathan Knuttel