Balkenhol is one of the most internationally recognized contemporary German sculptors; his works can be found in such important institutions as the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Neue Pinakotek in Munich, the Art Institute in Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Biography
Stephan Balkenhol, 1957 Fritzlar, Germany. From 1976 to 1982 he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Hamburg under the painter Sigmar Polke.
With the human form at the center of his work, Balkenhol is one of the main representatives who reintroduced the human figure into contemporary art. His monumental sculptures of anonymous people, in wood, polychrome in color combinations, are timeless and at the same time eerily familiar. His technique for sculpting wood shows all the imperfections typical of the tools he uses for his work, hammer, chisel and chainsaw; his sculptures retain the splits, cracks and fissures resulting from the sculpting process, creating living figures imbued with the artist’s spontaneous expressiveness.
He has realized numerous commissions, which can be found in institutions such as the Blackfriar Bridge in London, at the entrance of the Hamburg Zoo, the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, among others.
He currently lives and works in Germany and France.
Collections, a selection:
– Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin
– Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt a.M.
– Museum Ludwig, Cologne
– Neue Pinakothek, Munich
– Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
– Basel Art Museum
– Art Institute of Chicago
– Museum of Modern Art, New York
– National Museum of Art, Osaka
– Museum Africa, Johannesburg
