Ben Muthofer

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Folding sculpture (1988) by Ben Muthofer in front of the Museum of Concrete Art, Ingolstadt (photo 2007)

Ben Muthofer , actually Norbert Muthofer (born July 8, 1937 in Opole , Upper Silesia , † January 11, 2020 ) was a German visual artist . His works can be assigned to constructive - concrete art.

Live and act

After an apprenticeship in handicrafts from 1952 to 1955 in Erfurt, Muthofer first studied at the Werkkunstschule Bielefeld (until 1958), then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich , most recently (from 1962 to 1964) as a master student of Professor Ernst Geitlinger .

The first folding sculptures made of steel were created in 1966. In 1968 Muthofer went to the United States, where he worked in phases with and for Alexander Calder (three large sculptures) and, in the Hasting Sculpture Studio, St. Louis, for Ernest Trova . In the same year the Art Association, St. Louis, awarded him the 1st prize for sculpture. From 1968 to 1975 Muthofer taught sculpture at Washington University, St. Louis .

Muthofer received a grant from the Prinz Luitpold Foundation in 1982. In that year he also founded, together with Heinz Gruchot , "vertical-diagonal-horizontal". This 'cell' of up to six concrete working Bavarian artists exhibited in Munich, Freiburg im Breisgau, Hamburg and later also in other European countries. The concept was to exhibit together with specific artists from the region.

In 1988 Muthofer was appointed to a professorship at Myndlista, Reykjavík School of Art , Iceland. In 1993 he returned to Germany and lived and worked in Munich and Kirn / Obb. From 1995 he worked on the "Collection Concrete" - light body, which he completed in 1997. In that year Muthofer began to build and expand the exhibition hall, workshop, studio and apartment in Ingolstadt .

Prices

  • 1968 1st prize for sculpture from the Art Association, St. Louis
  • 1992 Prize of the Rosenheim Art Association
  • 2000 Bavarian State Prize for Rhythm in Concrete Art , Munich

Solo exhibitions (selection)

A catalog was published for the exhibitions marked with "K".

  • 1963 Heyden Gallery, Munich
  • 1967 Gallery Long, St. Louis
  • 1973 Gallery Nickelson, San Francisco
  • 1974 Gallery Kovler, Chicago ; art association, New York
  • 1976 Gallery 66, Hofheim am Taunus K
  • 1977 Large sculptures, Bad Füssing spa gardens
  • 1979 large sculptures, small sculptures, Burghausen K
  • 1980 Municipal Gallery Villingen-Schwenningen
  • 1984 Castle courtyard gallery, Kißlegg
  • 1985 Edwin-Scharff-Haus, Neu-Ulm
  • 1986 Wassermann Gallery, Munich
  • 1988 Städtische Galerie Ingolstadt, sculptures in Stadtpark K
  • 1989 Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, 13 large sculptures in the city ​​park Regensburg K
  • 1990 City Art Gallery Mannheim K
  • 1991 Concrete positions . Municipal Museum Gelsenkirchen (together with HH Zimmermann (pictures)) K
  • 1996 Gallery of the City of Sindelfingen
  • 1999 City of Simbach / Inn (large sculptures in the city park)
  • 2000 International Sculptor Symposium in Schwerin (Wiligrad Art Association)
  • 2002 Foundation for Concrete Art Roland Phleps , Freiburg im Breisgau
  • 2006 Institute for Contemporary Art in Saarland, Saarlouis
  • 2006 Sculpture, Kaleidoscopes Televisions - Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt (with W. Bauer)
  • 2007 Museum for Concrete Art , Ingolstadt
  • 2012 geometry, color, light. Ben Muthofer - retrospective , Art Forum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg K
  • 2016 Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Opole (Muthofer donated all 70 works in this exhibition to the city of Opole.)
  • 2017 double exhibition on the occasion of his 80th birthday in the Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, as well as in the gallery mariette HAAS, Ingolstadt

plant

Muthofer's sculptures are in the tradition of constructivism , as represented by the Russian brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner , insofar as they arise from the surface. His steles, for example, indicate - sometimes above, sometimes below, sometimes in the middle - volume, corporeality and mass, but on closer inspection they turn out to be a planar structure of cut and folded (but always flat) steel sheets. And there are other references: symmetry also plays such an essential role for Muthofer's sculptures as it does for Gabos, and the (straight) line as well as for Pevsner's.

If (rounded) shapes predominate in the works of the two Russians, Muthofer's formal language arises from the basic geometric shape of the triangle. Triangles are not only created in an elementary way, for example through the diagonal in the rectangle; a triangle also creates new triangles when you fold it. In his sculptures, Muthofer juxtaposes relatively thin, white sheets of steel, nesting them or folding them; Many a viewer may feel reminded of works on paper. Muthofer actually dealt with the Japanese paper-folding technique origami and explored its limits in relation to his own work. Muthofer's sculptures, however, are far from arousing associations with animals or other things in everyday life. Rather, the viewer is spellbound by the clear and holistic design of each individual work - “a higher, more absolute order that evokes calm, persistence and identity. This indicates an affinity to ritual works of art, to totems, idols, masks (...) »(Ingrid Ostheeren 1990) Two elements are constitutive for this impression: symmetry (here an axial symmetry that spatially interlaced parts of equal value, there one Rotational symmetry to the vertical axis) and the diagonal. As a surface diagonal, it allows the gaze to wander from top to bottom; as a spatial diagonal, it invites the viewer to walk around the sculpture. She always emphasizes the slimness of the rising stelae and connects above and below, left and right. In contrast to Pevsner, Muthofer's lines do not want to continue the sculpture, as it were, into the space; rather, they have a compacting and identity-forming character. And the diagonal always disturbs the view, for example when a volume edge at the top runs out into the disdainful edge of a flat strip below: where on earth has the volume that was still indicated above gone? «Muthofer knows how to generate extremely aesthetic high tension through different surface expansions. it is the dynamic principle that animates muthofer's sculpture. In addition to the geometry, its content is a reference to the rationality and dynamism of our knowledge. Muthofer's sculpture seems to want to break away from the earthly weight of greeting the modern flying machine from the ground (...) »( Eugen Gomringer )

The white paintwork of Muthofer's sculptures, like their flatness, supports the lightness of their appearance. (The sculpture Folding (1985) in front of the Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, for example, weighs 18 t.) In addition, the non-color white draws attention to the interplay of light and shadow. In fact, the light - in addition to the triangle, symmetry and diagonals - is to a certain extent the fourth ingredient of Muthofer's sculptures. In the 1990s, Muthofer intensified this aspect in his so-called “light steles”, for which he was awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Rhythm in Concrete Art in 2000 . A special artificial illumination of the sculptures by means of cold, white LED light emphasizes their lines and surface structure, their materiality, however, appears dissolved. "Beyond its own staging in its minimal physicality, in its volume, the sculpture refers to the formative quality of light in general and thus addresses a fundamental effect factor of all plastic design." (Ingrid Ostheeren 1990)

In addition to graphics and sculptures, Muthofer developed the so-called 'Kaleidoskopen Televisionen', slit-shaped, perforated, rectangular reliefs made of plastic that can be placed over a television monitor. If the television is switched off, the black screen disappears behind the work of art; if it is switched on, the light that falls through the slits creates kaleidoscopic light reflections. Muthofer was granted a patent in 2006 for the 'Kaleidoskopen Television'.

  • Day view kaleidoscopes televisions

  • Kaleidoscopes televisions in a darkened room with a running color film

  • In order to achieve the maximum color effect of the kaleidoscope televisions, the color surface film was developed

Works in public space (selection)

Since the early 1980s, Muthofer has created numerous sculptures for public spaces .

  • 1983 triangular variation 5/1983 . Edwin Scharff House, Neu-Ulm
  • 1985 triangle variation 8/85 ("Krönchen"). Olympiadorf, Munich
  • 1986 stele diagonal . State Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs, Family and Women, Munich (open competition of the State Building Authority Munich)
  • 1988 folding . Museum for Concrete Art, Ingolstadt
  • 1990 Folding I and II . Steel. Heinrich-Vetter -Weg in the Luisenpark Mannheim
  • 2009 light column . Art forum Ostdeutsche Galerie , Regensburg
  • 2009 Design of the Dr. Manfred-Henrich-Platz, Saarlouis (public competition of the Saarlouis Art Commission)

  • Dreiecksvariation 8/85 (1985). Location: Olympiapark , Munich

  • Space Folding I and Space Folding II (1990). Location: Luisenpark Mannheim

  • Light column (2007/2009). Location: Saarlouis station forecourt

  • Diagonal stele , Winzererstraße , Munich

Works in museums (selection)

In 2009 Muthofer donated a bundle of over 160 works, including nine sculptures and reliefs, around 150 graphics and three paintings, which represent a representative cross-section of his work, to the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie , Regensburg.

literature

  • Manfred Fath , Ingrid Ostheeren: Ben Muthofer: Sculptures . Catalog for the exhibition from September 22 to November 11, 1990 in the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim
  • geometry, color, light. ben muthofer - retrospectively. Gerhard Leistner (arrangement), ed. Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, 2012 [296 pages, on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie from July 15 to September 16, 2012] ISBN 978-3-89188-124-8 .
  • Muthofer, Ben . In: Supreme Building Authority Munich (Hrsg.): Bildwerk Bauwerk Artwork - 30 years of art and state building in Bavaria . Bruckmann, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7654-2308-4 , p. 248-249 .

Web links

Commons : Ben Muthofer  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ s. Catalog Large Art Exhibition Munich 1963 : cat.no. 758, Muthofer, Norbert, Munich, b. 1937 in Oppeln / Oberschl .: Composition 22 (material image, 170 × 100 cm)
  2. ↑ Meinrad Maria Grewenig: Riches of Silence - to Ben Muthofer's sculptures. In: Concrete positions: Ben Muthofer - sculptures, HH Zimmermann - pictures . Catalog for the exhibition from March 17 to April 28, 1991 in the Städtisches Museum Gelsenkirchen, 1991, page 7
  3. ↑ Ben Muthofer der Magnet , wochenblatt.pl, June 16, 2016
  4. ↑ Galerie mariette HAAS: Ben Muthofer , July 2 to October 7, 2017
  5. ↑ see Manfred Fath, Ingrid Ostheeren: Ben Muthofer: Sculptures , 1990, page 7
  6. ↑ quoted from Ben Muthofer - Galerie Mariette Haas, Ingolstadt
  7. ↑ Ben Muthofer - Galerie Wassermann
  8. ↑ see Manfred Fath, Ingrid Ostheeren: Ben Muthofer: Sculptures , 1990, page 8
  9. ↑ Ben Muthofer: Dreiecksvariation 8/85 (1985) - (Welt-der-Form)
  10. ↑ Ben Muthofer: Stele diagonal (1986) - (World-of-Form)
  11. ↑ Ben Muthofer: Space Folding I and Space Folding II . In: Jochen Kronjäger and Christmut Präger (eds.): Figure and Abstraction - Sculptures and Sculptures from the Heinrich Vetter Collection ( Memento from August 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 7.32 MB) . Heinrich Vetter Foundation, Ilvesheim, 2007, p. 100
  12. ↑ Artwork of the month 08-2009 Ben Muthofer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.kunstforum.net  
  13. ^ Saarlouis, Muthofer, Lichtstele - Kunstlexikon Saar, Institute for Current Art in Saarland
  14. ↑ Warning finger, shining signal - Saarbrücker Zeitung, May 19, 2009
  15. ↑ Ben Muthofer Foundation ( Memento from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - Art Forum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, July 30, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Muthofer, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muthofer, Norbert (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Opole , Upper Silesia
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 2020