The young artist gave the soup tureen from the time-honored KURLAND service—with its distinctive embossed rim—a contemporary design. To decorate this KPM classic, Marx spent a day in the manufactory’s painting workshop. It was 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 to Tokyo. Stefan Marx has designed T-shirts, skateboards, and album covers, and, when asked, even sketches a tattoo on someone’s skin. Now the 39-year-old has discovered porcelain as a medium and continued his collaboration with the long-established Berlin company as part of the KPM+ Edition.

Matthias Dotschko, Head of the KPM Painting Department, had the idea of inviting the Hamburg-based artist for the SZ project to 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. Now, Stefan Marx regularly visits the manufactory and hand-paints pre-ordered pieces.

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

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

The supervisor is a master painter. Then I got a little basic course – with which tools to paint and label porcelain, what the color is and what properties this special material has.

Have you ever painted or drawn on porcelain before?

No, that was completely new territory for me. I had some experience with ceramics, but that's a completely different story. Porcelain painter is a separate apprenticeship, it's not that easy to learn overnight. I find the whole craftsmanship of porcelain painting incredibly fascinating - you can make so many mistakes.

For example?

Hand-painted porcelain has the characteristic of being highly glossy; the paint is not absorbed into the surface and does not dry into the material. It can also be wiped away. If you are careless and touch the drawing, it will be ruined. So there are a few pitfalls – in the truest sense of the word, because the paint is very fatty or oily.

Did the form inspire you to create a specific drawing?

I wanted to bring drawings that are familiar to me onto the surface of KPM porcelain. The tools are a little different – now I use a ruling pen, also an ink pen, so I can easily apply my lines.

And how did the young vegetable end up on the KURLAND soup tureen?

I really pushed the Eintopf to the limit and opted for some very funny characters featuring the young vegetables. That was exactly the intention. Everything is drawn in a slightly exaggerated style—a real eye-catcher for the media. After my one-day visit, Astrid Schulz offered to add some gilding in various places—and that’s how this little collaboration came about. Here, 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. That's when I had the idea that I

My Sundaayyyssss drawings could be brilliantly transformed onto the URBINO service.

What do you like about the URBINO service?

I’m a big fan of the Bauhaus. URBINO is a tableware collection that features my drawings. The porcelain is so understated that it gives my drawings room to shine. Unlike with the KURLAND tureen , I tureen now tureen at the entire collection with the goal of marking each piece while maintaining consistent quality—and every piece becomes one-of-a-kind.

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

I think she would have been delighted. At the very least, I would certainly have been received by her with open arms and a certain curiosity.

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

Yes, at least it opens a door. You're not taking anything away, you're adding something. Then it gets 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 concerns about that.

Text: Heike Glaser

Images: Gene Glover