Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol: Sculptor

Born in 1957, he is one of the pioneering German sculptors who have also provided important international impetus over the last two decades. The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to the oeuvre of the sculptor, who has taught at the Karlsruhe Art Academy since 1992. Balkenhol's comprehensive craftsmanship and the diversity of his intellectual and cultural-historical references come into focus. Balkenhol chooses the human form, the head, animals and architecture as motifs for his sculptures, reliefs, drawings and photographs. In some respects, Balkenhol's artistic approach is a response to the minimalist strategies of Ullrich Rückriem, who was his teacher at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg from 1976 to 1982. Since the early 1980s, Stephan Balkenhol has been exploring what can be shown, felt and seen today through the statuary pictorial work in an actualising examination of the tradition of classical sculpture. The human figure is at the centre of Stephan Balkenhol's work. He carves his figures out of a tree trunk with a chisel; tool marks, knot marks and cracks remain visible. He uses colour to structure the sculpture. The figures appear personal and anonymous at the same time. Gesture, posture and facial expression suggest both inner distance and an attentively open attitude towards the viewer. Balkenhol's figures are not expressive "storytellers". Rather, he seems to be searching for a concentrate of human physiognomy and appearance. His figures thus appear unpretentious, unobtrusive and at the same time de-temporalised: "I don't want chatty, expressive, expressive figures. That's why I look for open expression, from which all states are possible." The openness of his figures, the renunciation of gestures and a narrative context, is a counter-position to the deliberately present-oriented or illustrative figuration, which thematises an individual aspect, but thus, in a kind of snapshot, restricts all diversity of interpretation. In addition to the sculptures and reliefs dedicated to the human figure, the animal, mythical motifs and architecture, the many, often lesser-known facets of his sculptural work are illustrated in this comprehensive book together with large drawings and photographic works.

Exhibitions:
Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 15/07 - 17/09/06
Museum Küppersmühle for modern art, Duisburg, 28/09 - 03/12/06
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, 17/02 - 24/06/07