Johann Schickinger

"Bronzes and wood sculptures"

01.12.1999 - 31.01.2000

Choosing the artist Johann Schickinger was a imaginative idea by Norbert Gleich, the President of the Kunstkreis Lauda-Königshofen (Art Circle). From the beginning of December 1999 until the end of January 2000 Johann Schickinger's creative output is being presented to a wider audience in two parallel exhibitions. The smaller paintings and sculptures can be seen at the home of the Kunstkreis Lauda-Königshofen, the gallery "das Auge" (the eye), while his large-scale monumental sculptures and paintings are on view to the public at the LAUDA FabrikGalerie. Large-size bronzes and wood sculptures, together with large picture formats (previously rare) make the brightly lit, large-scale stairway of the FabrikGalerie appear to be rather small. The monumental art exhibits seem to interfere with the normal progress of the visitor and compel him to engage in some form of discussion with these objects, whether intentional or otherwise. Johann Schickinger, a pupil of Alfred Hrdlicka, aims like his famous teacher to employ his sculptures in confronting those subjects which are engaging mankind today: the environment, violence, vulnerability, and death. Art, he believes, can and should have a political element, it should rouse us or at least cause us to reflect. He has not intention of improving the world, in his view the arts are not sufficiently powerful to do that; however he believes "in giving impulses, because that is what we are able to do". Allowing the exhibits at FabrikGalerie to act on us we can readily recognise the message. It really screams at us from the pictures and sculptures. Here there are fragments, a torso like pain frozen in stone and metal, humanity pursued and beaten, victims of torture: Schickinger's sculptures are an accusation, they deeply move the observer and appeal to the emotions. The works "Folter" (torture) and "Exekution" (execution) were both created on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "In Vergänglichkeit liegt die Hoffnung" (in transitoriness is hope) shows a particularly clear relationship to his teacher Hrdlicka: the figures grow out of the stone, the Holy Virgin carries the body of Christ. Schickinger produces his sculptures in stone and then casts them in bronze. Their appearance suggests that they are directly hewn from stone, since the artist neither polishes nor even finishes the surface after casting. Traces of the casting process are clear for anyone to see, fireclay residue remains attached to the surface. The general impression suggests weathered stone. The human body can barely be recognised, as if someone had solidified it in an instant of pain and turned it to stone. And yet the figures express an intense strain. Such an impression also becomes evident through the unexpected proportions, such as the feet much too large compared with the body. This conforms to the general geometry of the figure which has been distorted into an unnatural, square shape. The head emerges from the top, as though shouting for help, but the figure has no neck, no upright posture. Johann Schickinger has become well-known throughout Germany; his works are represented in many exhibitions and were awarded prizes at Augsburg, Nuremberg and Hamburg.

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