Lynn Chadwick. Biester der Zeit
18/05/2019–15/09/2019
The fantastic creations of the British sculptor Lynn Chadwick (1914–2003) evolve from abstractions of human, animal and architectural elements, including his now truly iconic ‘Beasts’, in which existential questions and dark humour are intertwined. Chadwick’s sculptures struck a chord with the spirit of the times: they embody a mixture – often described in those years – of weariness with civilisation, a utopian faith in progress and existential anxiety, fuelled by the experience of the war that had only just ended. In the 1950s, Chadwick purchased a dilapidated, neo-Gothic castle with extensive grounds, Lypiatt Park, west of London. The house and park became the ideal exhibition space for his sculptures: the eerie yet romantic, yet at the same time technoid works of art entered into a poetic, symbiotic relationship with the manor house and the surrounding ‘rolling hills’. With this exhibition of his work, the two Berlin art institutions are taking up this atmospheric dialogue between nature, architecture and art.
Chadwick’s first museum retrospective in Germany brings together around 70 sculptural works, numerous drawings and prints, as well as extensive archive material, and traces the impressive artistic development of this pioneering figure in British post-war modernism from the early 1950s to the late 1990s. The Georg Kolbe Museum presents a retrospective overview of the sculptor’s artistic output, showcasing his key motifs in larger groups – ranging from playful working models to complex sculptural-architectural forms in finished sculptures. The co-presentation at the Haus am Waldsee will focus in particular on the British artist’s late work, placing it within a tension between the present and the past. Works by Katja Strunz (b. 1970) and Hans Uhlmann (1900–1975) correspond through the motif of folding.