Graham Knuttel, a celebrated Irish painter known for his unique, idiosyncratic style, has passed away at the age of 69, according to an announcement on his social media page. Knuttel’s work was among the most recognizable by contemporary Irish artists, gracing the walls of both galleries and restaurants in Dublin, as well as public and private collections around the world.
Born in Dublin in 1954, Knuttel discovered his love for figurative, representational painting while attending Dún Laoghaire School of Art. In 1976, he won the Royal Canada Trust Award for Young Sculptors, although he only took up the medium in his last year of college simply to pass the course, as per his social media.
Knuttel’s distinctive style was typified by bold, colourful, and stylised figures with a strong graphical quality. His paintings often featured sinister, dark, and gritty scenes filled with dodgy, gaudy, and entertaining characters such as night owls and lounge lizards.
Knuttel’s Facebook page announcement said that he went about his life with the same boldness and without reservation as he did in his art. Additionally, the post stated that Knuttel was appreciative of his audience and the connections he had made.
Knuttel’s mother was a Unitarian from Northampton. Knuttel said: “My parents came to Ireland in 1947 from Bedford, in England, where my father had served with the RAF. My grandfather was a stone-quarry owner in Dresden, Germany, but my father and grandmother came to England after the first World War. My father is a strange, eccentric man, but he has nothing on his mother.”
When Knuttel was a child, his grandmother left a lasting impression on him. “Her cheeks were hollow, whitened with powder, and highlighted with rouge… The sight of her beside my father’s huge dark wardrobe sent me into a state of total hysteria. There being no one else in the room, she tried to lock me in the wardrobe. I can still hear her cackling and feel her long white claws at the back of my neck… I often look at my drawings of birds, with which I have had a long obsession, and I wonder. I’m glad that I managed to find some sort of humour in what I firmly believe was a very close call. I think she might easily have strangled me and possibly eaten me had not my cries been heard. She was returned that same day to Margate [in Kent], where she lived in a guest house surrounded by her collection of stuffed animals until her death in 1962.”
In 1998, The Turk’s Head pub on Parliament Street in Dublin agreed to pay Knuttel undisclosed damages after exhibiting counterfeits of his works Night on the Town, Love in the Afternoon and Foyer Regent Palace Hotel. When Knuttel requested them to remove the paintings, the pub refused.
Sylvester Stallone, an actor, was the owner of one of the paintings. Stallone bought 45 Knuttel paintings, 30 of which were destroyed by an earthquake. Another painting was purchased by Frank Sinatra’s manager, Jerry Weintraub. A third painting was on the wall of Renards nightclub in Dublin until it was damaged by fire.
In 2004, the operator of an art gallery in the St Stephen’s Green Centre in Dublin agreed to stop using the Knuttel Gallery name after one of several legal actions that the artist took against people using his name. Knuttel told The Irish Times that he objected to the use of the Knuttel name because he had built a reputation as an artist, not a gallery owner. He also believed the use of the name created the impression that he had a formal association with the gallery, which he did not.
In November 2021, Whyte’s, the Dublin auction house, held an auction of eleven Knuttel paintings, five of which had once been installed at La Stampa, the city’s famed brasserie which closed in 2007. One piece named Planet Hollywood, which had an estimate of €10,000-€15,000, showcased many celebrities attending the restaurant’s grand opening. Among them was Sylvester Stallone.
In short, Graham Knuttel’s unique, idiosyncratic artwork was widely renowned and known for its distinctive bold, colourful, and stylised figures with a strong graphical quality. His work could be found in public and private collections around the world and he built an incredible reputation as an artist throughout his lifetime.
