The Kasper König Collection – His Private Choice: Day 2
Francis Alÿs is a Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist.
His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. In 1986, Alÿs left behind his profession as an architect and relocated to Mexico City.
He has created a diverse body of artwork and performance art that explores urban tensions and geopolitics. Employing a broad range of media, from painting to performance, his works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence.
Stephan Balkenhol is a German artist known for his sculptures capturing the human form. Based in France and Germany, he specializes in wood sculptures, reliefs, drawings, and graphic techniques like lithography, woodcuts, and stencils. His distinct style features roughly carved and vibrantly painted wooden sculptures, often depicting people, animals, and architecture.
Balkenhol's subjects lack emotions, often gazing into emptiness, resulting in a distant and enigmatic aura. Wood is his primary medium, with softer woods allowing precise facial details while maintaining imperfections like chips, knots, and tool marks. The artist adds paint as a finishing touch, accentuating anatomy and vitality. The textured surfaces beneath the paint layer amplify the sense of life in Balkenhol's works.
Stephan Balkenhol is a German artist known for his sculptures capturing the human form. Based in France and Germany, he specializes in wood sculptures, reliefs, drawings, and graphic techniques like lithography, woodcuts, and stencils. His distinct style features roughly carved and vibrantly painted wooden sculptures, often depicting people, animals, and architecture.
Balkenhol's subjects lack emotions, often gazing into emptiness, resulting in a distant and enigmatic aura. Wood is his primary medium, with softer woods allowing precise facial details while maintaining imperfections like chips, knots, and tool marks. The artist adds paint as a finishing touch, accentuating anatomy and vitality. The textured surfaces beneath the paint layer amplify the sense of life in Balkenhol's works.
Stephan Balkenhol is a German artist known for his sculptures capturing the human form. Based in France and Germany, he specializes in wood sculptures, reliefs, drawings, and graphic techniques like lithography, woodcuts, and stencils. His distinct style features roughly carved and vibrantly painted wooden sculptures, often depicting people, animals, and architecture.
Balkenhol's subjects lack emotions, often gazing into emptiness, resulting in a distant and enigmatic aura. Wood is his primary medium, with softer woods allowing precise facial details while maintaining imperfections like chips, knots, and tool marks. The artist adds paint as a finishing touch, accentuating anatomy and vitality. The textured surfaces beneath the paint layer amplify the sense of life in Balkenhol's works.
Alighiero Fabrizio Boetti, known as Alighiero e Boetti, was an Italian conceptual artist, considered to be a member of the art movement Arte Povera.
Perhaps best known is Boetti's series of large embroidered maps of the world, called simply Mappa.
Jonathan Borofsky is an American artist known for his public sculptures and installations that explore themes of human consciousness, individuality, and interconnectedness.
Borofsky studied at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University. In the 1970s, he gained recognition for his conceptual and performance works, which often incorporated elements of language, text, and repetition.
In the 1980s, Borofsky began creating large-scale public sculptures, many of which feature human figures or silhouettes. One of his most famous works is "Molecule Man," a 100-foot-tall sculpture of three interconnected figures located in Berlin, Germany.
Borofsky's work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. He has also created public artworks in cities such as New York, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv.
In addition to his art, Borofsky is known for his interest in meditation and spirituality, which he often incorporates into his work. He has published several books on these topics.
Borofsky continues to live and work in Ogunquit, Maine, where he maintains a studio and creates new works of art.
James Lee Byars was an American conceptual artist and performance artist specializing in installations and sculptures, as well as a self-considered mystic. He was best known for his use of personal esoteric motifs, and his creative persona that has been described as "half dandified trickster and half minimalist seer".
Byars' notable performance works include The Death of James Lee Byars and The Perfect Smile, and in terms of multiple sculptures, the many letters he wrote that were composed as decorated sculptures.
Ernst Caramelle is an Austrian artist. He is known for his conceptual art, which often involves the use of painting and drawing as a means of exploring the relationship between perception and representation.
Caramelle studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and later taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His work is characterized by a playful approach to art-making, often blurring the boundaries between painting, drawing, and installation.
Caramelle's work often involves the use of trompe-l'oeil techniques and other visual illusions, inviting viewers to question their perception of the art object and the space in which it is displayed. He frequently incorporates architectural elements into his work, creating site-specific installations that engage with the surrounding environment.
Caramelle has exhibited his work internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, the Documenta in Kassel, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has also been awarded numerous awards and honors, including the Grand Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts in 2013.
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German artist whose work stands as a stark, unyielding reflection of the societal tumult and trauma of the early 20th century. Born in 1891 in Untermhaus, Germany, Dix's early life was steeped in the arts, his ambition to become an artist nurtured by both familial influence and formal education in Dresden. His experiences as a soldier in World War I deeply influenced his artistic direction, leading him to vividly depict the horrors of war and the decay of the Weimar Republic with a brutal realism that became his signature style.
Dix's association with the Dada movement and the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) further honed his critical, often cynical portrayal of post-war society. His works, such as "The Trench" and "War Cripples," expose the visceral aftermath of conflict, while his engagement with the Dadaists imbued his art with a disruptive, confrontational energy against societal norms and the art establishment.
Perhaps most notable is Dix's ability to capture the psychological depth and societal critiques through his portraits and landscapes, which ranged from the grotesque to the surreal. Paintings like "Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden" and the triptychs "Metropolis" and "War" are emblematic of his keen observation and stark depiction of the era's social and political unrest.
Despite facing significant adversity, including being labeled a degenerate artist by the Nazi regime and facing professional and personal setbacks, Dix's legacy as a painter and printmaker endures. His works are not only historical documents but also profound reflections on humanity, war, and society, resonating with collectors and art experts alike.
For enthusiasts of culture, art, and history, Dix's oeuvre offers an unflinching look into the human condition under the strain of societal and political upheaval. His contributions to painting and printmaking continue to be celebrated in museums and galleries worldwide, underscoring the enduring relevance of his work.
For those interested in exploring the profound depth and historical significance of Otto Dix's work, signing up for updates on new product sales and auction events related to his art can provide invaluable insights. This subscription is a gateway to staying informed about opportunities to engage with the tangible pieces of Dix's enduring legacy.
