Heribert Jakob Sturm

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Heribert Jakob Sturm (born November 2, 1934 in Fürstenfeldbruck ; † January 13, 2020 in Munich ) was a German artist, university professor and professor.

biography

Sturm studied from 1957 to 1961 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich , sculpture with Heinrich Kirchner (master student 1960) and art education with Anton Marxmüller . From 1972 to 2000 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, from 1983 as a professor for sculpture and art education. 1979–1982 he was a member of the presidential college. With him studied u. a. Michael Wesely , Nezaket Ekici , Albert Coers , Notburga Karl , Thomas Link, Hubert Sedlatschek, Stefanie Trojan . Sturm was the initiator of a branch of the Art Academy in Straubing , under the name INDEPENDENCE SR. This existed from 1986–2000 in a former slaughterhouse and served as a location for larger experimental and installation works and for exhibitions (including 1998 exhibition of scholarship holders of the Wilhelm Reissmüller Foundation for the exchange between Munich and Carrara). Sturm lived in Munich, in Dreifaltigkeitsberg and in Wies near Rattenberg in the Bavarian Forest, where he converted a barn into a studio .

Language, writing and signs and their movement in space form the background of Sturm's objects and installations. He became known for his sculptural-conceptual works, especially in public spaces, which often have historical and political references, for example his work A Dolfuss for the exhibition Reference Points 38/88 at the Styrian Autumn in Graz in 1988. Sturm had a concrete pillar with grooves arranged at right angles, Apparently an element of a connector system or a purely formal, minimalist-concrete sculpture, floating with a crane over a water surface in such a way that its floor plan was reflected in the shape of a swastika. With this, Sturm addressed the ambivalence of modernity and the present: “Order and system bring the menetekel of absolute authority to the wall.” He chose the Rosarium, a park on the Opernring, where in March 1938 the National Socialists a memorial to the Austrian they hated Had destroyed politician Engelbert Dollfuss . The title “A Dolfuß”, which can be read as a homage to the politician, also hides the first name of Adolf Hitler.

The preoccupation with National Socialism and with it one's own experienced childhood runs through many of Sturm's works, including different media. For example the two-part photo work European Gestures I and II (1983/1988, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus collection , Munich), in which the image of a Venus statue is juxtaposed with that of a concentration camp prisoner. Both of them cover their bare chests with their hands, making the same symbolic gesture.

The research and reflection process is incorporated into the work, or is itself an object and is published, for example in Where is Montgomery? - The dream of the right angle , created for the exhibition Hofer Herbst 1987. Here, Sturm reflects on the power of names in the catalog in an associative collage of images and texts; The starting point is the association of the location of the city of Hof in the "desert" of the Bavarian province, with actors of the Second World War in desert regions of Africa, such as the British General Montgomery , thus the presence of the experience of war in general. The ambiguity of the name, which simultaneously denotes different people and cities, the ambivalence associated with it is the subject. In The Dream of the Right Angle , Sturm then describes the transition from a purely constructive design task to the historically burdened symbol of National Socialism, considerations that he implements in the sculpture for the exhibition in Hof and in A Dolfuß .

The moment when the initially purely visual elements turn into a suddenly perceptible meaning in connection with physical processes is also characteristic of other works: TILT (1990) is a word and a performative object at the same time . The letters “TIIT”, which initially only appear as a meaningless palindrome , as a symmetrical construction and not as a carrier of meaning, are fastened horizontally on an angle on the wall and balanced vertically downwards with the help of a metal rod. If you add the small horizontal bar that turns the “I” into the “L”, the whole thing comes out of balance, the meaning of the word that becomes readable at the same moment (“tilt”) is realized immediately , tilt"). In order to make sense visible, an action is required, the work thus has the character of a performance.

In ΜΙΜΗΣΙΣ (1997) Sturm takes up a central concept of art and literary theory, mimesis . He designed the term as a symmetrical word image from the letters of the Greek alphabet, corresponding to its origin from the ancient philosophy of art. Pivoting, the letters rotate and make the word readable from the front and back as a palindrome . "M" and "Σ" seem to imitate each other depending on the rotation, thus illustrating the term as a whole.

ΣIΣYΦOSOΦYΣIΣ (1991), (fictional) sentence and sculpture at the same time, works in a comparable way with similarities and symmetries of letters to create ambiguity: the name of the mythological hero Sisyphus , who, according to legend, was doomed to forever roll a stone up a mountain, is mounted on a metal plate in ascending order in such a way that it is palindromically reflected in another plate that is perpendicular to it and in the descending mirror image merges into the term PHYSIS , which denotes physical (human) nature.

Exhibitions (selection)

Works in public collections

literature

  • Werner Fenz (Ed.): Reference points 38/88 . Graz city center October 15th - November 8th '88. Steirischer Herbst Graz 1988, ISBN 3-900642-01-X .
  • Helmut Friedel (Ed.): Views. Photographic images by Munich artists . Exhibition catalog Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Munich, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88645-119-4 .
  • Helmut Friedel , Gabriele Czöppan (eds.): Angelika Bader & Dietmar Tanterl, Herbert Rometsch, Heribert Sturm, Matthias Wähner: Hofer Herbst '87 ; Freedom Hall Hof, 6.10.87 - 31.10.87. Cultural Office of the City of Hof 1987.
  • Verena Kraft (Ed.): Art in Demolition , July 26th - August 18th 1991, artist workshop Lothringer Strasse 13, Munich. Culture Department Munich 1991.
  • Jakob Sturm: Places of possible living. My story, my way into art and from utopia . Axel Dielmann, Frankfurt a. M. 2020, ISBN 978-3-86638-272-5
  • Thomas Zacharias : Academy and madness. Spotlights on the Munich art college in the second half of the 20th century , unpublished. Manuscript. Academy of Fine Arts Munich 2016.

Web links

Commons : Heribert Jakob Sturm  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Academy of Fine Arts Munich - Personnel lists. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  2. ^ Academy of Fine Arts Munich - Personnel lists. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Jakob Sturm: Places of possible living. My story, my way into art and from utopia . Axel Dielmann, Frankfurt a. M. 2020, ISBN 978-3-86638-272-5 , pp. 192 .
  4. ↑ Helmut Friedel (Ed.): Views. Photographic images by Munich artists. Exhibition catalog Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Munich . Munich 1994, p. 65 .
  5. ↑ Heribert Sturm: Where is Montgomery? The dream of the right angle ... In: Helmut Friedel, Gabriele Czöppan (Eds.): Angelika Bader & Dietmar Tanterl, Herbert Rometsch, Heribert Sturm, Matthias Wähner .: Hofer Herbst '87 . Cultural Office of the City of Hof, Hof 1987, p. 64 .
  6. ↑ Helmut Friedel (Ed.): Views. Photographic images by Munich artists. Exhibition catalog Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Munich . Munich, S. 25 .
  7. ↑ Reference points 38/88 / guilt and innocence of art 1988 / steirischer herbst 1988 / years / archive / home - steirischer herbst. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  8. ^ Art in the process of demolition . 1991 ( artistbooks.de [accessed January 27, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Sturm, Heribert Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Fürstenfeldbruck
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2020
Place of death Munich