The Art of Alfons Kiefer

Alfons Kiefer is certainly one of the best-known illustrators in Germany. The artist, who chooses to live in Munich, can look back on more than 20 successful years in the business, with many cover motives for some of the biggest German magazines, posters, movie posters, LP and CD covers as well as innumerable works of fine art.
When he won the ARNO Art Award in the "illustration" category, Alfons Kiefer demonstrated in an impressive way that he is one of the best illustrators and artists of his genre.

 Art Scene:

So you owe your extraordinary career to one of your teachers?

  Alfons Kiefer:

Well, at least the fact that I decided to go this way. As you mentioned before, I originally wanted to become a sports teacher. At the time, we practiced with our canoes every day. We did competitive sport, then - canoe racing. At school, during a math lesson, I painted a racy canoe, shooting through the waves, with some markers. Suddenly, my teacher was at my side, took the sheet from the desk and asked me whether I had painted this just now. Instead of the roasting I had expected, he gave me the following advice: if you are able to paint this kind of thing, then you should make this your profession" - and that is what I did. 

Art Scene: With a well founded professional training?

Alfons Kiefer:

Of course. I deliberately chose to study visual communication with an emphasis on "illustration". My dissertation for my diploma was a songbook with illustrations to accompany the songs of a Bavarian blues musician. Although I do not play any instrument myself, music plays an important role in my life. You can easily see that in many artworks of mine. (...)

Art Scene:

For an "old school" illustrator - and we do not mean this in a negative sense - the market has changed dramatically. While food illustrations, technical illustrations and logos were designed and drawn in a conventional way back then, this is now clearly the field of modern photography and digital illustration or post processing. How did you experience the cessation of this market segment and how did you survive it?

Alfons Kiefer:

Yes, indeed, there were some major changes in the market. But there are many reasons for that. It would be wrong to put the blame for a lack of orders for conventional illustrations on the appearance of computers. On the contrary, the market has changed as a whole. Today, the largest proportion of funds is allocated to the TV advertising times. I estimate that 80 percent of the advertisement budgets are used for "commercials" and some of the rest goes to the internet. There is not much left for printed media. Many art directors who cooperated with me in the past tell me straight out today that they simply do not have any funds left for elaborate illustrations. On the other hand, it is just a question of "Zeitgeist" whether you use a painted picture or just a photograph. 
There is one field where this development is a great pity: movie posters. While it was a tradition in the past to have a great poster design (just think of Renato Casaro!!!), today, photographs are used almost exclusively and in most cases are very boring. A laudable exception: the Star Wars productions where Drew Struzan could fully develop his skills.

www.alfons-kiefer.de

Read the whole article in issue No. 73.