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When the name of painter, sculptor and assemblage artist Klaas Gubbels is mentioned, many immediately think of his tables and coffee pots, the main motifs in his work. The limited choice of subject and the very consistent style, characterized by simplicity and a template-like stylization, are Gubbels' trademark. The coffee pot, with an upwardly tapering holder and a gracefully curved spout, has now acquired an almost iconic status. The table usually functions alone or as a carrier for a coffee pot and other eating utensils such as cups and plates. His enormous oeuvre shows that Gubbels has never stood still. His personality and his work demonstrate great curiosity and creativity. He uses a multitude of techniques and materials, paints on canvas, board, wood, paper, glass and metals, makes collages, murals, lithographs, woodcuts, murals and sculptures.
Gubbels, born in Rotterdam, studied advertising painting at the Technical School there from 1949 to 1951 and went to work at the Bijenkorf. His employer required him to take additional training and so he ended up at the evening course at the Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts, which later became the Willem de Kooning Academy. After his parents' divorce, he left for Arnhem in 1952, where he studied at the Art Practice Academy from 1952 to 1958. There he receives lessons from Hendrik Valk, among others. In 1958, Gubbels moved into a studio in a former coach house on the Lichtenbeek estate in Arnhem, where he still works today. The days in his studio in Arnhem or in his house in France in the Ardèche follow a fixed schedule. Every working day starts at 10 a.m. with a few games of patience. Except for Friday, when he first buys flowers for his wife at the market. Then he gets to work. The fact that Gubbels is so devoted to painting the coffee pot, which he calls 'coffee kettles', is because he is a man of habits. 'Same greengrocer, same baker, same café, same wine. Monotony is my greatest source of inspiration. Terrible.' In the work for which he has become so famous, monotony seems to be his source of inspiration. But his search for variation in new expressions of the same themes appears to have become his great strength. The tables, chairs, pots, jugs and funnels that have populated his works for decades are always displayed differently and have sometimes been given human features; sad, happy, or just plain boring. Rudi Rudi Fuchs, former director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, characterizes his art as follows: 'Ultimately Klaas arrives at the clearest version of a form'.
From 1965 onwards, Gubbels exhibited abroad, not only in the Netherlands, but also in Lisbon and Paris. At the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005, a major retrospective exhibition of his work will take place in the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem. On his eightieth birthday in 2014, Gubbels will be honored with a special theme exhibition at Soestdijk Palace and in 2024 there will be the exhibition 'Long Live Art' in Museum Arnhem, a tribute to his career. Gubbel's work is represented in several major Dutch museums and in the corporate collections of, for example, Ahold, Akzo and TNT.
