Under the title "Bozzetti for a monument in the Ruhr area", 43 color-painted bronze bozzetti (sculptural sketches) by the artist Mark Lüpertz are exhibited. On the one hand, these were created as sketches and preparatory studies for his 18-meter-high sculpture of Hercules, which crowned the tower of the Nordstern mine in Gelsenkirchen at the closing of the Culture Capital Ruhr 2010 on 17 December 2010. On the other hand, the bozzetti are also understood as autonomous works of art.
In addition to the Hermann Monument in the Thuringian Forest (26.57 m) and the Bavaria in Munich (18,52 m), the Hercules in Gelsenkirchen is one of the largest public monumental sculptures in Germany. Its signaling effect demonstrates human power and virtuous behavior in the mythological sense.
In the drawn sketches or plastic bozzetto constructs, the idea of the artist emerges abruptly, as in no other medium. Often not even a tool, a brush or chisel, pen, or filler comes between author and work. The idea of the sculptor is suddenly materialized in bozzetto, the artistic form, the work. In no other artistic technique can the artist create forms as directly.
The painter Lüpertz, as he is quoted by Armin Zweite, says of his sculptural work: "I have worked as a sculptor as an addition to my studies. I created sculptures when I was tired from painting to change the medium. But I created sculpture as a painter. I have sculpted not as a sculptor ..."
This is the first exhibition to take place the glass hall of the Lehmbruck Museum, free of architechtural exhibition fixtures.
17 December 2010 until May 2011
Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum , Friedrich-Wilhelm-Str. 40, D- 47051 Duisburg
T. +49 (0) 203 283 3294 / 2630
