Provenance: Private collection, North Rhine-Westpalia
Klapheck found the upside-down bicycle in a Kaufhof newspaper ad. “I kept the newspaper page for almost ten years before I felt up to the task,” says Klapheck. The bicycle was completely redesigned, not something projected, and the wheels with their 36 spokes proved particularly difficult. “After all, it not only has to look somewhat believable technically, it also has to be artistically right.” Klapheck had seen the Tour de France supply wagons in France with their spare bikes on the roof. The inverted wheel appears as an instrument of torture and stands for the maltreated winner.
“Konrad Klapheck, Retrospektive 1955–1985”, Hamburg, Tübingen, Munich (Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst), 1985, p. 152.
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