Born in Hillerød, Kurt Trampedach (1943–2013) began studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, after having made his debut at the Artists’ Autumn Exhibition the previous year. During this time, he developed his characteristic painting style. Inspired by the works of Rembrandt and their melancholy humanism, his paintings were dark in tone, illuminating lonely figures. Many of his works departed from himself as model, creating many self-portraits, as well as often depicting his wife.
While the 1970s was a time for performance, new media and conceptual art, Trampedach staunchly stuck to his uncanny, naturalistic style. He expanded his practice to sculpture, creating neo-realist, life-size sculptures of human figures engaged in everyday activities. Despite the banality of their actions, these figures are deeply unsettling. Sculpted in plaster, and then painted, their skin is often grey and dirty, almost decaying. They wear clothes and wigs in contemporary 70s style in muted tones. They sleep on the sofa, on the floor, they make telephone calls, mostly, they wait for things.
Trampedach was a pioneer in this style of unanncy, hyperrealistic sculptures. He was included in a survey exhibition of this style titled GYS! – er den levende? at ARKEN just outside of Copenhagen in 2017. Conemporary artists who have developed on the tradition Trampedach helped to establish within hyperrealism, including Ron Mueck (b. 1958) and Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960), were exhibited alongside his work. These artists play with scale, making realistic sculptures of human bodies that are either a little too small, or disconcertingly big, illiciting a visceral reaction that these bodies are not right. Trampedach is able to provoke the viewer simply through the existential angst of these figures.
Throughout his experimentation with sculpture and other media, Trampedach continued to paint, meditating on the same themes across his work. In 2002, fires at his home and studio in France, and his studio in Denmark destroyed some of Trampedach’s paintings. This traumatic event plunged the artist into a depression, and he did not paint for the last years of his life.
Following his death, Trampedach was honoured with a retrospective at Kunsten – Museum of Modern Art Aalborg in 2018–19. Trampedach’s work is held in collections across Denmark, including Statens Museum for Kunst, ARoS and Fyns Kunstmuseum.