Georg Herold
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Georg Herold
Exhibition duration: August 20 – September 9, 2015
Gerhardsen Gerner Oslo is pleased to announce its third solo exhibition with German artist Georg Herold.
At the center of the exhibition are sculptures standing with outstretched limbs that delicately spread over the exhibition space. The shiny angular surfaces are interrupted by bulges that burst outwards from the structure.
The materials in the work of Georg Herold are extremely diverse. From wooden slats, fish eggs, bricks, to traditional bronze, the most varied of materials are used in unusual ways. The sculptures presented here are reminiscent of bronzes, but are actually made of polyurethane foam. Lacquer provides unity to the surface, hiding the actual substance beneath its luster. Only the foam emerging from the cavities hints at the original material.
But even more amazing is a relationship, which is revealed only upon closer inspection: Georg Herold undertakes an abstraction of the classical torso. The tall, thin shapes are combined into twisted human-like figures, contorting their limbs in all directions. Only from a distance do the angular forms begin to resemble a human body. The individual body parts dissolve into warped structures, edges are found in places where flowing curves are otherwise expected. The hard lacquer and sharp-edged transitions are in contrast to the subject that is represented. The intimate portrayal of a naked body is given an entirely new effect through the choice of the glossy material and the sharp edges.
Georg Herold seems to want to test the possibilities of the material combination of polyurethane foam and lacquer, because the different colors give each sculpture an individual effect. He thus produces the most varied of associations. By choosing a luminous pink hue, for example, a more feminine effect is produced. But Herold also chooses grey industrial tones. This coating, combined with the peculiar design, is reminiscent of disused industrial machinery.
Herold, born in 1947 in Jena, studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg from 1977 to 1981. From 1993 to 1999 he held a professorship at the University of Fine Arts / Städelschule Frankfurt. He lives and works in Cologne and has taught sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 2000.
Georg Herold’s works are to be found in a number of private and public collections. His work has been shown in renowned institutions such as the The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Oslo (2015, group „Poor Art – Rich Legacy. Arte Povera and parallel practices 1968–2015“); Foundation ArtZuid, Amsterdam (2015, group); Busan Museum of Art, Busan (2015, group „Travelling the World. Art from Germany“); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2015; group „Traces of Modernism“); MMOMA, Moscow (2014, group „The Paths of German Art from 1949 to the present“); Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf (2013, group „Auf der Spur der Erfindungen. Bildhauer zeichnen“); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2013, group „Ausweitung der Kampfzone. Die Sammlung. 1968-2000“); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2014, group „Die Bildhauer. Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 1945 bis heute“); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2013, group „Weltreise. Kunst Aus Deutschland Unterwegs“); Museum Brandhorst, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (2012); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2009); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2009, 1997, 1991); Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2007); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2007); Tate Liverpool (2004) and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2001) among others.
We are also pleased to announce that the Kunstmuseum Bonn will dedicate an extensive retrospective to Georg Herold’s oeuvre in 2018.
For further information please contact Marina Gerner-Mathisen, Gerhardsen Gerner, Oslo: marina@gerhardsengerner.com
or Gerhardsen Gerner, Berlin: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42, office@gerhardsengerner.com
or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com