David Kämpfen

David Kämpfen was born in Sisteron (France) in 1995. As his parents are Swiss-German, he grew up bilingual. At the age of ten, the family moved back to Switzerland. In 2016, he completed a bilingual art baccalaureate at the Gymnasium in Brig (VS). David Kämpfen is currently pursuing his master's degree in History and Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg (CH), but art has remained a central part of his life over the years and developed into a true passion especially during his cancer illness.

In a unique way, David Kämpfen shows at the Rhy Art Salon Basel how nature and the man-made can harmonise together. Even as a child, David Kämpfen drew a lot, and he was particularly enthusiastic about antiquity. Out of a childish impatience, he thus developed a minimalist drawing style in the manner of ligne claire with simple figures without shading at an early age. Only later did he realise that "omitting" need not be bad at all.

When David Kämpfen became acquainted with French Impressionism, he fell in love with painting. Especially Monet's paintings kindle a fire in him that burns to this day.
Many people think landscape painting is dead, but David Kämpfen proves the opposite with his atmospheric paintings. Loosely based on David Hockney ("You can't get really bored of nature, can you?"), David Kämpfen immortalises a kind of divine beauty of nature in his paintings. One element that always recurs in his paintings is water in its various forms. Like life, water can be calm and serene, but in the next moment stormy and wild.

In David Kämpfen's opinion, art should be self-explanatory and not need a legend. The artist describes this with a traditional saying by Leonardo Da Vinci: "How much beauty the heart receives through the eyes". With his eyes, the viewer sees something that another person does not see in this way. A painting is to the artist as a poem is to the poet: it is more than just words and lines.
For David Kämpfen, art only unfolds its real value when it is shared with others.

David Kämpfen: The last summer warmth / Acryl auf Leinwand, 58 x 75 cm, 2020

David Kämpfen: Peaceful harbor / Acryl auf Leinwand, 58 x 75 cm, 2019

David Kämpfen: Acryl auf Leinwand