Stephan Balkenhol
Mann mit schwarzer Hose
Artist
Stephan Balkenhol
Ausstellung
Stephan Balkenhol, Museum Jorn, Silkeborg 2020, col. Fig. 85.
Provenance
Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg;
Private collection, Southern Germany, acquired from the aforementioned in 2020.
Private collection, Southern Germany, acquired from the aforementioned in 2020.
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Description
- With his characteristic figurative wooden sculptures and reliefs, in which traditional folk craft techniques are combined with modern social and aesthetic ideas, Balkenhol has made a significant contribution to the further development of the postmodern concept of sculpture
- Man in white shirt and black trousers is the artist's most striking motif with a high recognition value
At the beginning of the 1980s, Stephan Balkenhol moved the human figure to the center of his work, thus reclaiming it for contemporary sculpture. Unimpressed by the dogma of abstraction, Balkenhol carved people out of wood, who became the archetypes of his art. Using traditional tools such as gouges, carving knives or clappers, he quickly carves his figures out of whole blocks of wood and then paints them. Despite their rough surface with partially protruding chips, they are of overwhelming precision and expressiveness. Characteristic of his work is the man in a white shirt and black trousers, one of Stephan Balkenhol's most popular motifs. In this particularly attractive version, the figure stands relaxed on a light gray, narrow pedestal.
From May to mid-September 2025, works by Stephan Balkenhol were on display in a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Rotterdam.
- Man in white shirt and black trousers is the artist's most striking motif with a high recognition value
At the beginning of the 1980s, Stephan Balkenhol moved the human figure to the center of his work, thus reclaiming it for contemporary sculpture. Unimpressed by the dogma of abstraction, Balkenhol carved people out of wood, who became the archetypes of his art. Using traditional tools such as gouges, carving knives or clappers, he quickly carves his figures out of whole blocks of wood and then paints them. Despite their rough surface with partially protruding chips, they are of overwhelming precision and expressiveness. Characteristic of his work is the man in a white shirt and black trousers, one of Stephan Balkenhol's most popular motifs. In this particularly attractive version, the figure stands relaxed on a light gray, narrow pedestal.
From May to mid-September 2025, works by Stephan Balkenhol were on display in a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Rotterdam.