Lot 237 GRAHAM KNUTTEL (1954 - 2023)
Title: Reclining Female Nude
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Signature: Signed Lower Right
Provenance: Private Collection
Unframed
If talk of mysteries and riddles in art whet your interest, this extraordinary painting, ''Reclining Nude' has it all. But first I would like you to let me fill you in on the artist who created it. I met Graham Knuttel in Duke Street, Dublin in the mid - nineties. His hair was bleached white and his face was corn yellow and he just sat and stared at me with a kind of imperious boredom. The late Hugh Charlton, his mentor and the owner of the Apollo Gallery in Duke Street had wanted me to write some catalogues for Knuttel's work. I was intrigued. It was Charlton's tireless devotion that caused Knuttel to suddenly emerge as the ''Enfant terrible' of the Irish art world. Within what seemed like months, Graham had an internationally growing reputation. Sylvester Stallone, Robert de Niro and several Hollywood moguls had bought a hell of a lot of his work. Knuttel himself seemed amazed and told me he couldn't believe that 'œManagers of fucking baseball teams, surgeons from Mount Sinai and movie stars wanted his work.'
It was bright in the sunny Apollo Gallery in Dublin that day, in contrast to Graham's uneasy pallor. It occurred to me that this lad might need a large dose of iron tablets. I have to say at first, I found him remote, aloof and by God he made me fierce uncomfortable. He had an air of dissipation and people who didn't like him said he looked shifty. (We eventually became friends). His muse of many years, the talented artist Rachel Strong, was also present. Recovering from a decline hastened by booze and drugs, she sat like a shadow in the background. With her alabaster face and bloodless lips, she seemed like a woman who feared a frowsy demise. They had both survived a desolate existence of what one could only call noble ruin.
On that day, Graham and Rachel were arguing fiercely. Rachel had painted a large, fantastic, but rather unflattering nude portrait of Graham which he loathed. Hugh, a marketing genius who could be a tad cunning, wanted to place it in the front window of the gallery. Immediately. Disgusted, Graham stormed out of the gallery. The painting was never exhibited and remained hidden in the back behind canvases. This incident started a flurry of reclining, harsh female nudes in Knuttel's work. 'œIt's revenge,' he would say gleefully, and it was. I suspect this nude, like many of his nudes is Rachel.
In this extraordinary painting, Knuttel portrays the female subject as a frozen freeze of human life. It's not just the way she is posed. It's her identity. If this painting was a book, it would be a page turner. She is depicted as a series of curves. Even the cushions have been fluffed and exaggerated to resemble those curves, but don't be fooled, this is no sleeping nymph. That sullen stare, the smoldering glare, the inscrutable defiance, and of course, the almost psychopathic colour makes this unique painting enigmatic.
Brighid McLaughlin, January 2026
€6000 - 9000
91 x 183 cm (approx.)
Tuesday 24th February 2026
20:20:24
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