Robert Metzkes
Robert Metzkes (born March 29, 1954 in Pirna , Dresden district , GDR ) is a German sculptor , painter and graphic artist .
life and work
In 1959 the family - the father is the painter Harald Metzkes , the mother Elrid Metzkes was a textile artist - moved from Pirna to Berlin . In 1972 he passed his Abitur there, which was followed by a study of sculpture at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden , where his father had already studied. Gerd Jaeger taught him there in the first two years of study and then until 1977 Jaeger's former teacher Walter Arnold and Helmut Heinze . Then he returned to Berlin and worked as a freelance sculptor, sponsored by the Berlin City Administration for three years . The result was the first life-size figure sculpture (plaster of paris for bronze), titled freely descriptive standing (looking at the ground) , and the child's head Hans , cast in bronze , with Hans being his own son. In addition, the charcoal drawings Two old men wedging and falling man . He exhibited for the first time in 1981 at the Sophienstrasse gallery in Berlin-Lichtenberg . In 1983 he was awarded the Gustav Weidanz Prize for Sculpture from the Burg Giebichenstein Art College in Halle .
In 1985 he began to work with colored engobed terracotta sculpture . He learned how to deal with clay as a raw material and the technique of coloring with the help of his sister Verena Hann, who is a well-known ceramicist. In the same year the exhibition Young Sculptors GDR / USSR , in which he was involved, was shown in Frankfurt (Oder) and in Moscow . In January 1988 he received the Will Lammert Prize from the Academy of the Arts in the GDR . A few months before the peak of the protest movement in the GDR , Metzke's Seated Woman on a Chair was the eye-catcher of a sculpture exhibition by young sculptors in the ruins of the Franciscan monastery church . The Adolph Diesterweg Memorial project extended from January 1988, with the approval of the Lord Mayor of East Berlin, until the celebrations in October 1990 . Metzkes was commissioned to design and implement one. In spite of admonishing interim assessments, he followed his basic associative concept undeterred and delivered an ensemble of traditional representations such as busts and inscriptions, and symbols, "substitute utensils", as he called them. This commission was followed by the production and installation of a larger than life bronze in honor of Gerhard Goßmann between 2006 and 2009 on behalf of the city of Fürstenwalde / Spree .
Robert Metzkes is married to the painter Barbara Putbrese . You live in Berlin-Karlshorst .
style
Metzkes' gravity works, mostly life-size human figures that stand, sit, kneel or lie or may be realized also in walking, he makes the former sculptor atelier of Georg Kolbe in Berlin Westend . His figures, mostly based on ideal-typical models , but also archetypal and fantastic figures such as fauns and harlequins, are perceived by some of the viewers as realistic, although they cannot be confused with living objects, while others are not. A possible derivation from the tradition of figurative work in the GDR is assessed just as differently , because on the one hand there is involuntary influence by the father and his own first artistic steps in the socialist environment, on the other hand his work only developed after reunification , is cited. On the other hand, the unanimous opinion prevails that the representations have the flair of ancient art .
The simulated people, even those frozen in motion, appear calm, dreamy, concealing a mysterious inner concentration, as if in a floating state of silent contemplation . The viewer, who stands face to face with the work of art in an “intimate situation”, has to sense with his senses what is going on, or interpret or just talk about it. There is a lot of naivety in his creations, it is said. They are simple and beautiful and therefore decorative, but not kitschy due to a degree of surface " cracking ". Metzkes himself professed to be decorative. In addition, he said in an interview in 1988: “My subject is the life-size figure, the portrait, modeled in clay or plaster and cast in bronze. I'll try out the other materials. The small limestone groups are very decorative. When it comes to terracottas, it appeals to me to be able to paint them in color. ”And later asked about the accuracy of the depiction of reality:“ It's not about the depiction of anything, but about the form that translates reality. ”
Solo exhibitions
- 1999: Via del Corso (Gallery Berlin, Berlin)
- 2006: Robert Metzkes: Terracottas (Museum Théo Kerg, Schriesheim)
- 2008: Robert Metzkes (Kunst Kabinett Usedom, Benz)
- 2011: Robert Metzkes (LEO.COPPI Gallery, Berlin)
- 2013: Robert Metzkes - Images of People (Kunsthaus Norden, Norden)
- 2014: Robert Metzkes ( Georg Kolbe Museum , Berlin)
- 2016: Robert Metzkes - "Quinta essentia" (Klosterscheune, Zehdenick)
- 2020: Robert Metzkes: Scenario (Galerie Sandau & Leo, Berlin)
Group exhibitions
- 1985: Young sculptors GDR / USSR (Frankfurt (Oder) and Moscow)
- 1986: GDR art of the 80s (Eßlingen)
- 1989: [title not known] (ruins of the Franciscan monastery church, Berlin)
- 1989: Contours - Works by GDR artists born since 1949 ( Alte Nationalgalerie , Berlin)
- 1993: Barbara Putbrese / Robert Metzkes (Kulturpodium Lichtenberg, Berlin)
- 1996: Berlin Cabinet - Drawings (V) (Galerie im Turm, Berlin)
- 2001: 10 years of the Berlin Cabinet - works on paper and sculptures (Galerie Parterre, Berlin)
- 2001: Movement and rest: Karl Hofer and Robert Metzkes (Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin)
- 2001: North South / Pictures + Stones (Klostergalerie Zehdenick - Kulturlandschaft Brandenburg Nord eV, Zehdenick)
- 2001: Barbara Putbrese - Built Painting / Robert Metzkes - Colored Sculpture (Galerie im Kunsthof Hintersdorf, Berlin)
- 2002: The Horse (Kühn - Lilienthal Gallery, Bremen)
- 2003: Metzkes and Metzkes: Commedia (Galerie LEO.COPPI, Berlin)
- 2006: Masterworks of the 20th century (Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin)
- 2007: New acquisitions of classic modernism and the present (Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf)
- 2007: Tete-a-tete (Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt / Main)
- 2007: Robert Metzkes & Gerda Brodbeck ( house on Lützowplatz , Berlin)
- 2009: New acquisitions spring 2009 (Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf)
- 2009: Water (LEO.COPPI Gallery, Berlin)
- 2009: Robert Metzkes & Barbara Putbrese (LEO.COPPI Gallery, Berlin)
- 2009: New acquisitions autumn 2009 (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2010: 55 years of Galerie Koch - masterpieces of sculpture (Galerie Koch, Hanover)
- 2010: Summer exhibition (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2010: 1910 FIGUR 2010 (Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin)
- 2010: Dreiklang (Kunstverein zu Rostock, Rostock)
- 2010: Autumn / Winter 2010/2011 (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2011: Encounters (Ines Schulz Gallery, Dresden)
- 2011: Portrait (Gallery 422, Gmunden)
- 2011: Focus on people! (Mainz Art, Mainz)
- 2012: Elrid Metzkes for the 80th (Galerie LEO.COPPI, Berlin)
- 2012: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Beckmann - Robert Metzkes (Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt / Main)
- 2012: In the eye of the beholder (Art and Literature Forum Amalienpark eV, Berlin)
- 2012: Summer exhibition 2012 (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2013: Moment 2013 (LEO.COPPI Gallery, Berlin)
- 2013: Vessel / sculpture 2. German and international ceramics since 1946 ( Grassi Museum for Applied Arts , Leipzig)
- 2014: Muse and Model (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2014: Moment 2014 (LEO.COPPI Gallery, Berlin)
- 2015: Sculpture I (Ludorff Gallery, Düsseldorf)
- 2015: Robert Metzkes / Barbara Putbrese - Pas de deux (Galerie Kunst-Kontor, Potsdam)
Works-owning museums
- Ludwiginstitute for Art of the GDR, Oberhausen
- Municipal Museum, Eisenhüttenstadt
- Museums, memorials and collections of the city of Magdeburg
- Monastery of Our Dear Women , Magdeburg
- Municipal Museum, Neubrandenburg,
- Galerie Junge Kunst Museum, Frankfurt / Oder
- Märkisches Museum , Berlin
- Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Robert Metzkes. Images of man. April 6th - June 9th, 2014. (No longer available online.) In: georg-kolbe-museum.de. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016 ; Retrieved May 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Michael Zajons: Greetings from the present. Stylized beauty: On the 60th birthday of sculptor Robert Metzkes, his sculptures are on view in a wonderfully concentrated double exhibition in Berlin. In: tagesspiegel.de. May 8, 2014, accessed May 5, 2016 .
- ^ Will Lammert Prize of the GDR . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . January 14, 1988.
- ↑ a b c d Ingeborg Ruthe: Vernissage. Grace does not save the effort. In: berliner-zeitung.de. November 9, 2011, accessed May 5, 2016 .
- ↑ "Seated Woman on a Chair" . In: National newspaper . May 17, 1989 (exhibition July - September).
- ↑ Christine Lost: Diesterweg “ad oculos” / A history of monuments . In: Förderkreis Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung eV (Ed.): Bulletin of the Förderkreis Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichteforschung eV, 20th year, no. 1 , May 30, 2009, ISSN 1860-3084 , p. 34–47 ( bbf.dipf.de [PDF; 5.9 MB ]). bbf.dipf.de ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Heidemarie Boek: In the Friedländer Tor. Naive and undisguised . In: Nordkurier . November 22, 1990.
- ^ Aureliana Sorrento: Confession to the decorative. Robert Metzke's clay sculptures in the Berlin gallery . In: Berliner Zeitung . February 23, 1999.
- ↑ a b Cornelia Lambrier: It can be decorative. BZA visited the Berlin sculptor Robert Metzkes . In: BZ in the evening . January 28, 1988.
- ^ Ingeborg Ruthe: Scenes from the human comedy, In: Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, April 29, 2020
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Metzkes, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sculptor, painter and graphic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 29, 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pirna , Dresden District , GDR |