Erwin Heerich

(Germany) *1922 in Kassel, †2004 in Meerbusch

Erwin Heerich’s artistic thinking evolved from drawing, where he quickly progressed from stylized figurines and representations of animals or objects to geometrical abstraction. He projected these designs, based mostly on the square, into three-dimensionality in his characteristic carton sculptures. Through his contact with the founder of Insel Hombroich, he came finally to scale his sculptures into spaces one could walk into, possessing an exterior as well as an interior form. As ‘walk-in sculptures’ they still shape the museum today, serving also to some extent as exhibition spaces for the collection presented in Hombroich. The sculpture brought to the Kurpark for Blickachsen 13, “Ohne Titel” (Untitled), is made of dark basaltic lava with a distinctive porous surface. In a mathematically precise geometry, it unfolds from its square ground plan into a double cube, on which – covering a quarter of the base area – towers a shaft three cubes high. Two triangular indentations underline the architectonic impression of the sculpture.
Erwin Heerich studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy after the war, has taken part twice in documenta (1968, 1977), and from 1969 to 1988 was an influential teacher at the Düsseldorf Academy.