Artwork of the month:
Norbert Kricke, Raumplastik, 1958
Video
Unser Kunstwerk des Monats: Norbert Kricke, Raumplastik, 1958
Steel, brass, silver - cold, industrial materials. In the hands of Norbert Kricke, they became something weightless, alive, and full of energy. Born in Düsseldorf in 1922, and shaped by the post-war years, Kricke reclaimed these industrial elements - transforming them from symbols of destruction into expressions of openness and movement.
Introducing the Artwork Created in 1958, this artwork, titled Raumplastik, stands just 25 centimeters tall, but draws every eye in the room. At first glance, it’s chaos - a burst of steel rods jutting in every direction. But look again… this is motion captured in metal, a freeze-frame of energy itself.
Kricke’s Artistic Approach From 1950 onwards, Kricke’s Raumplastiken, sought to express space and movement over mass. His focus was not on creating solid, heavy forms, but on activating the space around them.
Describing the Form In Raumplastik, the lines seem to explode outward, yet an invisible tension holds them together. These rods don’t simply occupy space - they carve through it, make it visible. Light slips between them, shadows multiply, and the whole form seems to vibrate, as if caught mid-flight.
Closing Through works like Raumplastik, Kricke showed that even the hardest steel can become a drawing in space - delicate, alive, and full of possibility. This piece will be exhibited in the show “Sculpture 2” from the 29th of August on the first floor in the Galerie.
