Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol
Born	1957 (age 67–68) Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany
Nationality	German
Education	University of Fine Arts of Hamburg
Style	Figurative art

Stephan Balkenhol (born 1957, Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany) is a German artist who creates figurative painted wooden sculptures and reliefs. He is currently a Professor of Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe (Germany). He lives and works in Karlsruhe, Germany and Meisenthal, France.

Artistic Style

Balkenhol's work adopts a figurative artistic style. People are typically depicted in a neutral, objective way, removing socio-critical references. ^[1]

Balkenhol uses a variety of woods, such as poplar, Douglas fir and wawa wood. He hand carves each piece from a single block, leaving behind shavings and natural imperfections visible in the wood. He uses paint to structure the sculpture without heightening the figure's expressiveness. As a result, human figures are never polished and like humans, are not without imperfections. ^[2]

Artist's public installations

Balkenhol has also completed a number of public commissions in his career. Among them are the “Big Head Column” for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice, Italy), “Big Man with a Little Man” for Pariser Platz (Berlin, Germany), “Man and Woman” for Hamburg Central Library (Hamburg, Germany), “Everyman” for the Edinburgh City Council Offices (Edinburgh, Scotland) and “Man with Tower Block” (Toronto, Canada).

• 
  'Man on Giraffe' in the Tierpark Hagenbeck
• 
  "Man + Woman" in Hamburg in front of the Central Library of the Hamburger Öffentliche Bücherhallen
• 
  Large column figure in Lörrach
• 
  "Man with deer" in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany
• 
  Richard Wagner Memorial in Leipzig on a pedestal by Max Klinger
• 
  "Emma" Contribution to the Merano Art Project "HumanShapes"

Public collections

• Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA)
• Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL, USA)
• Broad Museum (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
• Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, Germany)
• Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, DC, USA)
• Kunstmuseum Bonn (Bonn, Germany)
• Le CEAAC (Strasbourg, France)
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Aachen, Germany)
• Museu Berardo (Lisbon, Portugal)
• Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany)
• Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (Frankfurt, Germany)
• National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
• Neue Pinakothek (München, Germany)
• Pasadena Museum of California Art (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Peggy Guggenheim (Venice, Italy)
• Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA, USA)

References

1. "STEPHAN BALKENHOL". Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur e.V. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
2. Stonard, John-Paul (2000-10-12). Balkenhol, Stephan. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.

External links

• Stephan Balkenhol.BTHVN at MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art website