Until 5 December 2021, the Dorotheum-sponsored exhibition “ERWIN WURM. Dissolution” will be on display in the MAK branch Geymüllerschlössel.

Gestural Sculptures

Gestural ceramic sculptures are centre stage at a MAK exhibition sponsored by Dorotheum: “ERWIN WURM. Dissolution” is currently on show at the museum’s site at the Geymüllerschlössel. Created through performative gestures, the anthropomorphic sculptures embrace the ephemeral as much as they do the physical presence.

A series of works entitled “Dissolution”, developed between 2018 and 2020, sees the artist in search of a tactile material, an artistic production method and a creative process which cannot be definitively controlled. The sculptures show human fingers, hands, lips, mouths, breasts, bellies, navels, noses, and ears twisting out of amorphous mounds of clay.

The experimental, surreal formations, a fusion of abstracted mass, isolated body parts and sensory organs, have a highly expressive quality and appear to take on a life of their own. Pastel-coloured painterly glazes in pink, violet, or blue appear to have been poured-over haphazardly, their layers recalling elements in nature or exposing the fired, ceramic surface of sculptural bodies and formations beneath.

More about Dorotheum as a collaborative partner.