Acid Paintings
"When I move to Mallorca in the summer and open a new season for my painting, I almost always seek new boundaries as a matter of principle. I am constantly searching, and step by step, I do not know what will come. The development from moment to moment keeps me in my profession and fascinates me anew every time."
Intentionlessness, curiosity, and chance. Serafin, Knie’s "good spirit in Mallorca," spoke in 1992 of a Mallorcan painter who treated his paintings with acid. The thought didn’t leave Knie, and he began to experiment. It was a valuable process, as the "Knie-like" combination of ingredients in this mixture had not been tested before.
First, the canvas or Chapiteau is primed. For this, Rolf Knie uses thickly soaked and dyed papier-mâché, which he roughly spreads over the painting surface. He then draws directly through the paint mass with a brush. The papier-mâché gives the paint its pasty volume and can now be attacked by the acid. The composition of the acid remains a well-kept secret.
