His figure paintings of historical and imagined people tend to leave expectations unfulfilled, and elide simple categorization. In contradistinction to his clear and precise articulations of form, Kauper's content is characterized by indeterminacy, unintentionality, ambiguity, fluidity, destabilization, strangeness, amorality, uselessness, and the neutral. He loves Bach, Ingres, and Roland Barthes.