Hilmar Boehle

Hilmar Boehle (born September 6, 1953 in Neuwied , † July 17, 2009 in Düsseldorf ) was a German artist .

Life

Hilmar Boehle was born in Neuwied in 1953. He spent his youth in Duisburg, where he graduated from the Humanist Landfermann Gymnasium in 1972. After studying at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1972 and 1973 and studying general at the University of Bonn in 1974, Boehle began studying sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, which he completed as a master class student in 1979.

Between 1978 and 1991 he had the opportunity to get to know the art scene in New York, Los Angeles, Turin, Lodz and Kazan as artist in residence and to produce his own work in this environment. In 1985 he received the sponsorship award of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for young artists for his artistic work . In the same year Boehle took part in the Triennale in New Delhi together with two other German artists. The impressions he gained during his stay in India are also echoed in his works. For example in “Bank of Rajasthan” (1986).

plant

Hilmar Boehle's artistic work is a genre-specific, heterogeneous work. There are installations as well as drawings and videos, as well as some weaving works in the later years, brought about by the increasing fascination with the rapid development in the field of communication technology.

At first, the closeness to his teacher Reusch can be felt in Boehle's object-like works, which form a focus within his oeuvre . For example in “Perspective '79”, shown at Art Basel 1979. This work shows clear correspondences with Reusch's works in the reduction of form to a geometric body and the tracing of the relationship between object space and surrounding space.

Over the years, Boehle's work became emancipated. As a sculptor, he moved away from traditional materials like marble or modern ones like iron. The material was extremely important to him, be it that he was inspired by an idea or was looking for the right material to implement an idea.

An essential characteristic became the conscious search and selection of objects as material that were explicitly remote from art. Apparently known things that were taken from everyday life and that were taken from everyday life, Boehle combined and thus freed them from their intended meaning and context by transferring these objects into an artistic dimension. Through this combination, the artistic process, during which the objects are devalued or revalued, Boehle opened up scope for association, new perspectives and opportunities for the viewer. The viewer is motivated to think and rethink, to question and experience. All of this seems to be stimulated almost independently by the material, because Boehle does not intervene in a highly abstract way. Although he is present in his works, it is more than a kind of mediator who opens the door.

Ironic breaks were also areas of interest and tension for Hilmar Boehle. The artist as not only a critic, but also a questioner in the art world becomes thematic in many works.

A third field is the game of chance and concept. This is the basis of many works. Boehle was interested in the tension between precision and frivolity, the planned and the accidental, as seen for example in the works “The Conversation” (1982) or his last work “Alkadien” (2009).

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1978 Dave's Corner, Artist's Space, PS1 , New York
• 1982 Private Life, Rheinhausen Gallery of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg
• 1987 Avanti Artisti, Museum Folkwang Essen
• 1993 watercolor, Neuer Tanz, Marstall Schloss Benrath , Düsseldorf
• 1997 From Aachen to Zurich, Sprengel Museum Hannover
• 1983 Location Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
• 1985 Bauhütte, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
• 1986 6th Triennial India, New Delhi, India
• 1989 BonAngeles, Santa Monica Museum of Art Los Angeles
• 1991 Kazan Art Museum, Tatarstan
• 2001 Homage à Ryszard Stanislawski, Profile of the collection, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
• 2004 Values, 11th Visual Arts Biennial, Gallery of Contemporary Art Pancevo, Yugoslavia

literature

• Hilmar Boehle. How big should I make the dragon because . Exhibition catalog, Bielefeld, 1983.
• Hilmar Boehle's picture book . Exhibition catalog, Essen, 1987.
• Schrenk, Klaus: beautiful strangers, stranger proximity . In: exhibition catalog. Bon Angeles. Bonn, Santa Monica, 1989.
• Boehle, Hilmar: SiegHeil's end. Fifty years later , compiled by Hilmar Boehle and Günter Less. Düsseldorf, 1995.
• Krempel, Ulrich : How do you model Lupo. In: exhibition catalog. Hilmar Boehle. Hanover, 1997. ISBN 3-89169-117-3
• Lüthy, Michael: From Aachen to Zurich. In: exhibition catalog. Hilmar Boehle. Hanover, 1997. ISBN 3-89169-117-3
• Hilmar Boehle. Sculptures, objects and performances from 1978 to 2009 . Verlag Kettler, Dortmund, 2016. ISBN 978-3-86206-491-5

Web links

• Literature by and about Hilmar Boehle in the catalog of the German National Library
• Personal website