Picture "Untitled - Critical Listening" (2018) (Unique piece)
Picture "Untitled - Critical Listening" (2018) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | signed | ink on paper | framed | size 48 x 38.5 cm
Detailed description
Picture "Untitled - Critical Listening" (2018) (Unique piece)
Ink on paper, 2018, signed. Motif size/sheet size 29.7 x 21 cm. Size in frame 48 x 38.5 cm as shown.
About Stephan Balkenhol
In the field of figurative sculpture, Stephan Balkenhol is one of Germany's most significant and internationally successful artists. Collectors all over the world covet his works. Especially in the USA, he and his works are popular. The prices for his works are consistently rising.
The human being is the focus of his works. Balkenhol deliberately avoids the clear depiction of emotions in the faces of his figures. He refuses to dictate specific feelings and interpretations. The viewer is encouraged to discover the stories behind the faces that gaze into nothingness.
Wood is the artist's favourite material. Soft woods such as poplar or wawa wood allow the artist to precisely carve out the faces of his figures. The material always remains recognisable, and the processing retains a rough structure beneath the painted surface.
Stephan Balkenhol, born in Fritzlar, Germany in 1957, studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His work is celebrated in exhibitions in major art capitals such as New York, Tokyo, London, Madrid and Berlin.
A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art that has been personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolours, drawing, etc.).
In addition to the classic unique pieces, there exist the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a type of modern art, that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.
In the history of arts, the starting point of this trend was the work "Les Meules" (1890/1891) by Claude Monet, in which for the first time a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.