ERWIN WORTELKAMP

20.09.2019 – 26.07.2020

The Museum DKM was dedicating a comprehensive exhibition of works to the sculptor Erwin Wortelkamp on the entire six-room temporary exhibition area. From September 2019 to March 2020, works were presented covering a more than 40-year creative phase, from the 1970s to the present day. The collectors and museum founders Dirk Krämer and Klaus Maas have been following the work of the sculptor Erwin Wortelkamp for twenty years. Erwin Wortelkamp has preferred special interior and exterior spaces for his autonomous sculptures for decades. Wortelkamp takes into account the effect of the respective place on the perception of the works as part of artistic design. In doing so, however, he does not create works connected with the place in the traditional sense, but examines how these works, taken from the “home” studio, behave in new contexts. The student of the Danish iron sculptor Robert Jakobsen doesn’t create sculptures for a specific place, on the contrary he finds special places for his sculptures.

The starting point for the development of a spatial concept is a large-scale sculpture made of calcified oak, which was exhibited in the Gallery DKM at the inner harbour of Duisburg as early as 2001. The work, which was presented in the context of the exhibition at the Lehmbruck Museum and the entire city of Duisburg at the same time, was entitled Sculpture – Architecture, which summarizes an important theme in his work, with which he has been working for decades repeatedly. Another calcified wooden sculpture, but three-part and much more fine-grained, illustrates the possibilities of this medium. The Step was exhibited at the Arp Museum in 2007. At first glance, a strong contrast-forming, filigree drawings deal with the same subject that the wooden sculptures also take up: in the discussion with the sculptor and architect Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino c. *1400 in Florence; c. +1469 in Rome?) Wortelkamp refers to initial construction, carrying and burdens, such as a becoming and passing.

Room I

Sculpture – Architecture, 2001
wood, lime
80 x 60 x 720 cm

Standing leg, 2007
wood, lime
2 parts, 343 x 38 x 33 cm and 289 x 26 x 12 cm

Initial architectural man, 1988
paper, rapidograph
2-part, 32,7 x 23,7 cm

Initial Architectural Man, 1989
paper, rapidograph
3-part, 23,7 x 32,7 cm

untitled, 2019
cardboard, linseed oil, pigments, scratched, dissolved out
38 x 52 cm

Pair 1, 2000
cast iron
45.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm and 42.5 x 10.5 x 8.5

Penetration, 2015
branch, leaf
5 x 15 x 11 cm

Sheathing, 1976
wood, iron
3 parts, 191 x 12 x 60 cm, 128 x 22 x 15 cm and 90 x 20 x 19 cm

Room II

Oranges for Hans von Marées

Orange field, 1996 – 2019
182 oranges
plaster, pigments, iron casting
each approx. 8 – 13 cm (D)
3 parts, 191 x 12 x 60 cm, 128 x 22 x 15 cm and 90 x 20 x 19 cm
14 watercolors
paper, linseed oil, pigments
each 70 x 50 cm
Private collection

untitled (9 embossed prints), 1994 – 1996
paper, emulsion paint
each 91,5 x 79 cm
Private collection

Big orange, 2001
wood, linseed oil
120 x 120 x 120 cm
Private collection

Pair, 1990
wood, lime, pigments
2-part, 2006 x 49 x 32 cm and 2004 x 60 x 50 cm
Private collection

untitled, Hans von Marées, o.J.
red chalk drawing
29,8 x 13,6 cm
Private collection

untitled, Hans von Marées, o.J.
pencil drawing
25,3 x 15,8 cm
Private collection

Room III

Maybe a tree I, 1974
iron
251 x 125 x 1,1 cm

Yellow reliefs (No. I), 1983
wood, iron paint
198 x 57 x 13 cm
Private collection, Gerolsheim/Frankental

Yellow reliefs (No. IV), 1983
199 x 54,5 x 19 cm
Private collection, Mannheim
No. V: 199 x 57 x 16.5 cm

For Karlheinz Nowald, 2015
wood, lime
7 parts, 205,5 x 54 to 66 x 1 to 10 cm

Around September 21, 1993
wood, lime, iron
215 x 130 x 85 cm

Relief, organic-vegetative, No. 3, 1978
iron
155 x 75 x 35 cm
Private collection, Mannheim

Relief torso, 1979
iron
228 x 93 x 50 cm

untitled, 1983
cardboard, dispersion, chalk, pencil
30 x 11,9 cm
cardboard, dispersion, chalk
30 x 11,9 cm
2 works
cardboard, dispersion, chalk
30 x 11 cm

Room IV

African sculptures, Unknown
31.3 x 15.8 x 3 cm (base 8 x 8 x 0.7 cm) and 11.8 x 2.6 x 3.4 cm

In dialogue with itself and beyond, 2019
wood, lime
2 parts, 335 x 67 x 32 cm and 334.5 x 68.5 x 30 cm

untitled, 2003
wood
2-part, 37.4 x 5.8 x 4.4 cm and 45 x 8.1 x 7.5 cm

untitled, 2005
paper, linseed oil, pigments, scratched, detached paper
3 parts, each 47,

untitled, 2004
paper, linseed oil, pigments, cut, dissolved paper
100 x 70 cm

untitled, 2004
Paper, linseed oil, pigments, cut, dissolved paper
61 x 86 cm

Room V

Heads, 1982
dispersion on paper
15-part (of 20), each 58,8 x 58,8 cm

Heads, 1984
dispersion on paper
4-parts, each 90,5 x 80 cm

Head, 1982/1983
wood, paint
110 x 110 x 120 cm

Heads, 1982/1983
bronze
bronze, gilded
each 18 x 18 x 14 cm

Room VI

Oranges – for Hans von Marées, 2010
paper, linseed oil, turpentine, pigments
70 x 100 cm and 100 x 70 cm

Oranges – for Hans von Marées, 2010
paper, linseed oil, turpentine, pigments, scratched, detached paper
8 works, 37 – 48,2 x 29 to 44,8 cm

For Hans von Marées, 2003
wood, lime
40 x 24 x 15,5 cm, 31 x 20,5 x 31,5 cm, 20 x 22,5 x 13,5 cm

For Hans von Marées, 2004
wood, glued, lime
36,5 x 15 x 32,5 cm

For Hans von Marées, 2004
wood, glued, lime, paint
21 x 30,5 x 15,5 cm

(Unless otherwise stated all works owned by the artist)