Reliefs and Sculptures
From idea to form
In 2005, the director of the planned city museum in Wiesbaden discovered oak panels from the 17th century in the cellar of the old town hall during his research and found out that they had been made around 1609 by a Strasbourg carver on behalf of the Wiesbaden city council for the half-timbered façade of the town hall and depicted the seven virtues. The city council wanted to symbolize that these virtues were the basis of its work in the humanist and Christian tradition.
Reliefs
The seven virtues, 2010
When the town hall was rebuilt at the beginning of the 19th century, the oak panels disappeared until they were rediscovered in 2005 and exhibited in the new Wiesbaden town hall in 2010, although little attention was paid to them because the embodiment of the virtues by corpulent female figures was no longer comprehensible, even if, on closer inspection, a wealth of symbolic elements shed light on the nature and characteristics of the virtues, even for our current discussion of social values.
At the time, I agreed to attempt a contemporary interpretation of the virtues with the help of the symbolic elements while retaining a popular representation. The idea was to juxtapose the panels from the 17th century with a modern depiction of the virtues. From 2010 to 2017, the seven reliefs were made of hard polystyrene and colored with acrylic paint.
Some of the reliefs were on display in 2010 at an exhibition by the artists’ group 50, of which I am a member, at Wiesbaden Town Hall, but the original intention of juxtaposing them with the 17th century oak panels was ultimately not realized, as was the construction of the city museum on Wilhelmstrasse. On this website, the juxtaposition is at least on paper.
The seven virtues – Justice
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Justice
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Wisdom
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Wisdom
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Courage
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Courage
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Moderation
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Moderation
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Love
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Love
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Faith
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Faith
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
The seven virtues – Hope
Oak wood, Straßburg, around 1609
The seven virtues – Hope
Polystyrene relief painted with acrylic, 60 x 50 cm
Cravings
In 2014, I created the two reliefs “This is what I would like to …” and “This is whom I would like to …” for an exhibition by the Professional Association of Visual Artists. What the titles express is a mood of life that I felt. George Gershwin and the Beatles express this mood musically, while the reliefs swinging into the room were created from the latent sensual pleasure that I wanted to proclaim, so to speak.
I would love to have these…
Acryl auf Polystyrol mit Stahlstäben – 50 x 60 cm
I would love to …
Acryl auf Polystyrol mit Stahlstäben – 50 x 60 cm
Sculptures
However, working with hard polystyrene and acrylic paint to create reliefs and sculptures continued to appeal to me. So I ended up making two sculptures (“Rhapsody in Blue” and “Yellow Submarine”) for the exhibition of the artist group 50 at the Wroclaw Academy of Arts in 2011.
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
The Yellow Submarine
The Yellow Submarine
The Yellow Submarine
The Yellow Submarine
The Yellow Submarine
Why I invented the squiglet, 2022
Acrylic color on hard polystyrene sculpture
60 x 40 x 40 cm
(see also under Literature the book with that title)
Why I invented the squiglet
Acrylic color on hard polystyrene sculpture 60 x 40 x 40 cm (see also under Literature the book with that title)
Paintings | Graphics | Editions | Literature