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4 Figures
Artist
Stephan Balkenhol
(Born 1957, Germany)
Date2000
MediumPainted wood
DimensionsOverall: 62 x 19 x 14 in. (157.48 x 48.26 x 35.56 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, Sid W. Richardson Foundation Endowment Fund
Object number2001.1.1-4
Status
Not on viewCopyright© Stephan Balkenhol
Category
Label TextStephan Balkenhol’s 4 Figures, 2000, presents four versions of the same roughly hewn but realistically rendered man. The smaller-than-lifesize figures stand atop natural wood pedestals that show the tree trunks the sculptures are carved from, and they hang on the wall like reliefs. Each figure has an unevenly painted surface—the effect of using a broad paintbrush, which leaves much of the natural wood exposed. Balkenhol’s work pays homage to German woodcarving and classical sculpture, but he also critiques art history with humor and irony. The static pose and deadpan expression of each sculpted man calls to mind Greek kouros figures, which depict idealized male nudes, as well as the emotionless wood and stone statuary of ancient Egypt used to honor pharaohs and kings. But rather than commemorating a hero or fastidiously crafting a religious icon, Balkenhol roughly chisels wood to depict a modern everyman.
From 1976 to 1982, Balkenhol studied art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany, where the staff included the influential artists Nam June Paik, Sigmar Polke, and the young artist’s primary professor, Ulrich Rückriem. Figuration was taboo when Balkenhol was a student; reflective of the times, his professors were focused on Minimalism and Conceptualism. But during the 1980s, when Balkenhol matured as an artist, figuration in the art world reemerged.
Balkenhol’s serial depiction of an ordinary man echoes the photographic tradition of typology, which can be seen in the work of German photographers from August Sander (1876–1964) to Bernd and Hilla Becher and their students Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth. Whether photographing people or objects, these artists presented their subjects with a detached, systematic approach in order to document their chosen subject matter as objectively as possible. By presenting four straightforward views of a single man, Balkenhol’s 4 Figures also represents a type.
From 1976 to 1982, Balkenhol studied art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany, where the staff included the influential artists Nam June Paik, Sigmar Polke, and the young artist’s primary professor, Ulrich Rückriem. Figuration was taboo when Balkenhol was a student; reflective of the times, his professors were focused on Minimalism and Conceptualism. But during the 1980s, when Balkenhol matured as an artist, figuration in the art world reemerged.
Balkenhol’s serial depiction of an ordinary man echoes the photographic tradition of typology, which can be seen in the work of German photographers from August Sander (1876–1964) to Bernd and Hilla Becher and their students Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth. Whether photographing people or objects, these artists presented their subjects with a detached, systematic approach in order to document their chosen subject matter as objectively as possible. By presenting four straightforward views of a single man, Balkenhol’s 4 Figures also represents a type.