Berthold Dietz

Not art for art’s sake

01.08.2004 - 30.09.2004

It has to be said that the new exhibition in the LAUDA FabrikGalerie DR. R. WOBSER GMBH & CO. KG stands out somewhat. It doesn’t display the current trend of cosy landscapes, symbolic advisory constructions or the eye-catching interplays of colour and form. No: the focus of the works by Berthold Dietz, the sculptor and graphic artist from Lichtentann, is still on the human element. Berthold Dietz was born in Zwickau in 1935 and studied stonemasonry and sculpting between 1949 and 1955. He attended Zwickau’s School of Painting and Arts under Prof. Carl Michel between 1952 and 1955. He then studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden. He completed his studies as a trained sculptor under Prof. W. Arnold in 1960. Since then, he has been living and working as a freelance artist in Lichtentanne. Dietz is one of the original sculptors on the East German cultural and artistic scene. He has been creatively active for the past 15 years. In apparent peace and solitude, he has created an artistic work in an abundance and diversity and quality without any spectacular, superficial scenarios. Dietz is an avowed Christian and doesn’t conceal this fact in his work. Christian ethos, the thoroughness of the craftsman, optimism and the affirmation of life plus the penchant for the lyrical determine the artist’s creativeness. His claim to counselling is a further credo of his art. Not art for art’s sake – but rather art to make you think, to analyse, to enjoy, to edify, to display values and human dignity. Archaic forms and figures arise from his hands, full of power, exciting dynamics and also structural peace, with a delicate appearance and also spaciously reaching into the heavens. He develops forms which are respectful to nature. They remain comprehensible and testify to human existence by means of the knowledge and experience of suffering and joy, express the emotions of joie de vivre, sadness and sympathy, thereby making them potential monumental mirror images of our society. In numerous exhibitions, Berthold Dietz has already presented his sculptures. His works have taken part in various joint exhibitions including in Dresden, Magdeburg, Rostock, Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo and Montpellier. Many of his works are visible in the public domain including in Zwickau, Chemnitz, Erfurt, Plauen, Gera and Hoyerswerda. One of the greatest challenges of recent years has been the avowed Christian’s participation in the competition for the monument to the Holocaust in Berlin. His draft was a platform with a side length of 65m into which a relief-like map of Europe was integrated. The centre was to hold a pavilion 11 metres in height: under its roof – the shape of a Star of David – Dietz wished to position a group of 7 Jews. To his regret, this suggestion didn’t receive a majority by the jury. The exhibition in the LAUDA FabrikGalerie shows a small yet impressive cross-section of his comprehensive works. Small sculptures and drafts for monumental sculptures, coloured manual drawings of figurative group compositions and watercolours well worth seeing from his educational trips are on the business hours between August and the end of September. Our photo is of the trained sculptor Berthold Dietz in the LAUDA FabrikGalerie next to the sculpture "Female thinker", netxt to the "Overarm" bronze sculpture and next to his sculpture from "White Italian marble". The depiction is of "Moses with the Commandments Tableaux".

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