The Baron of Munchhausen is a liar? Of course he is! And no one takes the slightest offense to his habits. After all, his adventure-filled travel stories serve Fredo Kunze as the ideal basis for his artwork.
Fredo, who was born in Bohemian Dittersbach in 1936, became enthusiastic early on about comics and caricatures. And this shines through in his scenarios because he never fails to find the image, the moment that says it all.
If things had gone as his school teacher in Radeburg thought, the talented young draughtsman would have become another Heinrich Zille. But things went differently: Secondary school and an apprenticeship were followed by academic studies, and it was only when Kunze left his working life behind that he finally turned to artistic three-dimensional design.
In the past years, Kunze has been taking from his wonderful world of imagery - developed on paper as a pupil - and creating objects. Kunze has long expanded his unmistakable style to include the three dimensional, relying on his unerring expert hand. Here he sees himself in the tradition of the figurine makers from the Saxon Ore Mountains, but unlike them he creates complete stories to which he gives his own utterly unique form. And so Fredo Kunze's unconventional scenarios intermesh in the most wonder-filled way the pictorial worlds of comics, art and folk art.
![[Translate to English:] Ein Maikäfer als Bassist.](/fileadmin/_processed_/1/5/csm_DSC_0084_9b12f0f24b.jpg "Maikäfer flieg!, 2017 (Detail)")
Kunze's detailed, lathe-turned ensembles often arise from the classics of literature, the world of adventure and fairy tales. These sources provide him with the material to which he then gives shape. Whether it's Don Quixote, the Baron of Munchhausen, westerns or fairy tales, it is precisely these vividly told, fantastical stories that hit home for Kunze.
Fredo Kunze interprets and processes these narratives and lends them a completely new, inimitable form. He surprises us not only with his sense for the perfect moment. Always showing the critical instant, the many details of his scenes and the figures tell us their very own version of those stories, straight from the horse's mouth - honestly!
