Stephan Balkenhol
first exhibited his figurative
sculptures in the early 1980s, flying in
the face of the dominant trends of
minimalism and conceptual art. Today,
his casual and undistinguished “guys and
gals” have a contemporary resonance that
has gained him notoriety on the
international art scene. Born in 1957 in
Fritzlar, Germany, he studied art in
Hamburg with Ulrich Ruckriem. Balkenhol
rebelled against Ruckriems
mathematically precise aesthetic.
Traveling throughout Europe after
graduation, he studied the sculptural
traditions of the past and found his
greatest affinity was for the art of
ancient Egypt with its “… fascinating
aura of eternity and tranquility.”
Balkenhols figures are a kind of
twenty-first century “everyman” –neither
idealized nor individualized. The
“standing man” character has been
described by one critic as “… short,
homely and needs to lose a few pounds.
Hes the type of man you would never
notice in a crowd, and who would no
doubt bore you to tears on a date (hed
probably spend the evening talking about
his power drill)." The artist makes
these figures from soft wood (poplar or
African wawa) cut with a power saw,
hammer, and chisel creating rich
surfaces where every mark of the chisel
is visible. Calling to mind the great
tradition of German figurative sculpture
in wood and the expressionist heritage
of the Germans, Balkenhols people are
curiously devoid of emotion and have
been described as “German Expressionism
without the expressionism.” |
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