Historic Background of the Masters of Winemaking:
During my studies of Art History as university student in Germany, I traveled through Europe to visit historic landmarks, museums, cathedrals, libraries and famous monasteries and often took the opportunity to rent a boarding room in some of the famous monasteries. I was fascinated by the cultural treasures I could find there and you could learn so much about the history and diverse fields of expertise, - one especially: The Making of Wine and Champagne by the members of these Orders. During wine tasting in their cellars, I was surrounded by historic tools and equipment, hand-carved casks and had delightful talks with the cellarers and enjoyed their hospitality.
These keepers of so much treasured culture inspired me to preserve certain situations in their life as Masters of Winemaking.
The play of the feature in my works tells whole stories. Each mime in their faces, their gestures, their hands and fingers and many more details bring life into these captured moments. Sometimes, I inject a little touch of humor in circumstances of their life; after all, they are only human. Each of my works contain historic details such as artistically wrought iron work on the cellar doors, impressive hand-carved wine barrels, wine pitchers with embossed ornaments, authentic tools the winemakers worked with and much more.
For ages, the various Orders have represented the highest level of culture. They were the keepers of science, education, inventions, literature, the art of metal making, fine art, music and, - whom we all know of as agriculturists, - as developers of world famous champagne and excellent wines.
The monasteries had the facilities, properties and vineyards and the Brothers took the time to grow and cultivate different kinds of grapes. They developed in the course of time a variety of wines.
We all know the French Friar after whom the world famous Champagne is called: Dom Perignon. In the beginning, the Brothers produced the wines for the use in their monasteries, their clerical purposes and festivities. In the late 18th and mainly in the 19th century, their wine products became so popular that they sold them to the public too.
Additionally, the Brothers also produced highly desired specialties like herbal digestive liqueurs, liquors and the world famous Cognac. Due to this enormous demand, new professions in the monastery for the Brothers evolved, each of which had their special title for their particular field of work. Furthermore, they established their own market booths in the weekly farmers’ market place which in those times was the weekly meeting point at all.
This whole development led to the situation that more and more the public wanted to visit the Brothers in their place of work in the monastery and so they had to make a room available for their visitors in one of their wine cellars. This gradually led to the establishment of real wine taverns where the Brothers offered rustic food, wine tasting seminars and, of course, sold all wine related goods there.
These wine taverns became popular gathering places, where one could meet professional wine merchants, huntsmen and rangers, priests and bishops, also tourists and the public.
I want my paintings to be entertaining, conversational pieces for the art collectors and at the same time to be very decorative.
Klaus Strubel