Sculpture

Recent events have pushed artists to visualize ideas of closeness in a new light. "Kinship", published on the occasion of the National Portrait Gallery’s next “Portraiture Now” exhibition, features the work of eight leading contemporary artists who explore familial relationships through photography, painting, sculpture and performance.

Sculpture is just a word, an English word, which elicits an image in the mind’s eye. Sculpture is a European idea. In China, on the other hand, statues, stele, and other figural objects were made for millennia without being thought of as Sculpture. There was no Sculpture in China. "Imagining Sculpture" is the story of this something that did not exist.

Johann Gottfried Schadow’s "Princess group" has gone down in the annals of art history. As the first statue of two female historical personalities it testifies to the innovation, enormous artistry and productivity of sculpture workshops in the 19th century – a symbol of the important sculpture of German Classicism.

In 1991, the town of Pulheim initiated the Stommeln Synagogue art project, a permanent process of examination of this historically significant location. Since then it has continued to make a contribution to a culture of remembrance. A wide-ranging overview of remarkable works is being assembled on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the synagogue.

A hall of art surrounded by nature, supported by 121 individually designed pillars created by famous artists from all over the world: Bernd Zimmer has been pursuing this idea and its realization for over 30 years. The volume is lavishly illustrated and documents its creation, showing all the artists’ pillars in detailed individual photos.

Recent events have pushed artists to visualize ideas of closeness in a new light. "Kinship", published on the occasion of the National Portrait Gallery’s next “Portraiture Now” exhibition, features the work of eight leading contemporary artists who explore familial relationships through photography, painting, sculpture and performance.

Santiago Calatrava’s (* 1951) encounter with the sculpture collection at the Glyptothek in Munich thirty years ago prompted him to create an extensive series of sculptures with the title Die Aegineten (The Aeginetans). This volume focuses attention for the first time on the sculptures and paintings of the famous architect and shows how he was influenced by Antiquity.

Wiebke Siem (b. 1954 in Kiel), who was awarded the prestigious Goslar Kaiserring in 2014, is an important representative of contemporary art with an oeuvre that questions the boundaries between the genres of fashion, design and sculpture and engages in a rewriting of the history of modern art from a female perspective that is as knowledgeable as it is humorous.

"Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962" delves into the various circles of artists who lived in France following World War II. Featuring new scholarship and illuminating essays, this groundbreaking volume illustrates many of the paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photos, and films produced during these fertile years.

Heinz Mack’s Sahara Project is legendary. In 1968 he installed for the first time light columns with a height of up to 11 metres which reflected and mirrored the glaring sunlight in the Tunisian desert. Nature and object fused to create an artwork of breathtaking beauty. This comprehensive volume records the history and ideas of this spectacular project over four decades.