STEFAN RINCK DER ALPEN-CLAN KEHRT ZURÜCK

Stefan Rinck’s sculptures certainly cannot be said to lack weight, but they nonetheless come across as feathery flights of fancy in which aspects of high and low culture are boldly swirled together with diverse cultural and art-historical periods. This paradox is compelling, the sculptures deriving their impact less from their heavy monumentality than from their free-thinking capriciousness, as they win us over with their nonchalant self-evidence. With finely tuned instincts, Rinck constantly readjusts the parameters of his art, from sculpture to sculpture, and this process in turn informs his approach to the world as an artist.

In his hands, rough rocks grow into unknown sublime creatures. When choosing which type of stone to use, he bears in mind the specific methods of working each material, in order to do justice to the allure of the future sculpture. With the stonemason’s expertise, his eye may jump from a more brittle, clay-colored Elbe sandstone to the hard brightness of a blue Macaubas or green Atlantis quartzite, before unexpectedly considering a block of snow-white statuary marble, the nonplus ultra of classical sculpture, for his next folie. The material mix of his sculpture park summons a motley crew of shimmering spirits into which he breathes life. With their often overdrawn features, they recall Picasso’s extraterrestrial acrobats of the blue and rose periods. Like them, Rinck’s statues inhabit our world without sharing our reality. Which is what makes them so appealing. We are touched by the strangeness of their fairy-tale habitat which, viewed close up while maintaining a safe distance, is not dissimilar to our own human nature with all its desires and anxieties.