The young artist gave the soup tureen from the traditional KURLAND service with its typical relief edge a contemporary design. To decorate the KPM classic, Marx spent a day in the manufactory's painting department. An encounter that made both sides happy. It marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship between the traditional brand and the graffiti artist. The man who started out as a street artist and whose works now hang in galleries from Düsseldorf to New York and Tokyo. Stefan Marx has designed T-shirts, skateboards and record covers and, if desired, will even draw a tattoo on your skin. Now the 39-year-old has discovered porcelain as a surface for himself and has continued his collaboration with the traditional Berlin company as part of the KPM+ edition.

Matthias Dotschko, Head of Painting at KPM, had the idea of inviting the Hamburg artist to the SZ project so that they could get to know each other personally. He and his team were fascinated by the speed with which Stefan Marx executes his drawings and how skillfully he implements the very special painting technique with pigments and turpentine oils. Stefan Marx now regularly comes to the manufactory and paints pre-ordered pieces by hand.

Mr. Marx, how was your first visit to KPM Malerei?

I was welcomed with open arms and was allowed to ask anything. The spirit among the staff is really great. The porcelain painter Astrid Schulz became my tutor and

She is a master painter. Then I was given a short basic course - which tools to use to paint and mark porcelain, what makes the color and what properties this special material has.

Have you ever painted or drawn on porcelain before?

No, this was completely new territory for me. I had some experience with ceramics, but that's a completely different ball game. Porcelain painting is a profession in its own right, it's not so easy to learn from one day to the next. I find the whole craft involved in porcelain painting incredibly fascinating - you can make a lot of mistakes.

For example?

Hand-painted porcelain has the property that it is highly glossy, the paint is not absorbed onto the surface and does not dry into the material. It can also be wiped off again. If you are careless and touch the drawing, it will be destroyed. So there are a few pitfalls - in the truest sense of the word, because the paint is very greasy or oily.

Did the shape inspire you to create a particular drawing?

I wanted to transfer drawings that are familiar to me onto the surface of KPM porcelain. The tools are a bit different - now I use a drawing pen, also an ink pen, so I can get my line in well.

And how did the young vegetables end up in the KURLAND soup tureen?

I took the Eintopf to the extreme and opted for very funny figures with the young vegetables. That was the intention. Everything is drawn a little exaggerated, a media eye-catcher. After my one-day stay, Astrid Schulz offered me a gilding job in various places - and so it became a small collaboration. This is where tradition meets the year 2017.

And now the collaboration with KPM continues. What is the idea behind the current collection?

There is this very high-quality porcelain that you only take out of the cupboard on Sundays. You know it from certain social circles. So it occurred to me that I could

my Sundaayyyssssss drawings could be transformed incredibly well onto the URBINO service.

What do you like about the URBINO service?

I am a big Bauhaus fan. URBINO is a service on which I can see my drawing. The porcelain is so restrained that it gives my drawings space. In contrast to the KURLAND tureen , I now look at the entire service with the aim of labeling it with consistent quality - and each piece is unique.

What would Trude Petri, the creator of the URBINO design, have said?

I think she would have been delighted. At least she would have welcomed me with open arms and a certain curiosity.

With you, pop culture meets a traditional brand. Is this a way to bring this cultural asset into the 21st century?

Yes, at least you open a door. You don't take anything away, you add something. Then it takes on a whole new facet. The idea of releasing the entire URBINO service as a Sundaayyyssss service will also appeal to my generation, I have no reservations about that.

Text: Heike Glaser

Pictures: Gene Glover