Events

‘My intention through my works is to achieve a condition which is ambiguous allowing many interpretations in many directions.’

– Georg Herold, 2005

In the present large-scale bronze sculptures, Georg Herold portrays three elongated figures. In two of these works, both Untitled from 2022, the figures appear to leap and twirl in a lyrical dance, their seeming lightness and poise juxtaposed against the reality of their weighty physicality. With an unmistakably female form, one of the dancers stands with legs crossed and arms outstretched, the textured and patinated surface revealing variegated hues of turquoise flecked with charcoal grey. The other figure balances gracefully on one foot, hands thrown towards the sky, as if lost in the blissful exaltation of movement. Coated in white and blue lacquer, its smooth, shiny form glistens in the natural light. In a third sculpture, titled Aktivistin from 2013, a vibrant pink figure reclines outstretched in a strikingly contorted pose, one leg raised high above her head. Dynamic and lively, the sculptures’ spirited gestures seem to invite the viewer to join in their rapture.

Each rendered on a towering scale, the three works engage with and challenge the history of sculpture from antiquity through to Surrealism, as much as the isolated figures of Alberto Giacometti. Wryly subverting the pathos, symbolism and gravity of the canon of art history, they are at once playful yet profound, reductive yet mystifying. As the art historian Armin Zweite aptly states, ‘Herold‘s forms seem strange and yet familiar at the same time’.