The Rotterdam resident Ab Knupker is best known as a painter of still life, portraits and landscapes. In 1943 he started his studies at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, which was rudely cut short by his deportation as a forced labourer to Germany. When he returned to Rotterdam in 1945, he continued his education at the academy where he carefully learned to draw still lifes and models. Knupker started out as a realist, but after his studies he developed in the direction of surrealism. His patient way of working and the fascination for the materials he worked with resulted in beautiful still lifes and portraits. From the early 1970s, he also made series of drawings and watercolours with a politically critical character.