Norbert Kricke

(Germany) *1922 in Düsseldorf, †1984 in Düsseldorf

With his “spatial sculptures” Norbert Kricke has had a decisive influence on German postwar modernism. Following his early figurative sculptures, he devoted himself entirely to the line as a sculptural, space-creating element. At first through their geometric, rectangular curves, then increasingly as free-flowing, filigree constructs, his designs are characterized by their dynamics in space, leading the eye along their movement through three-dimensionality. For Kricke, volume is not massive and firmly delimited, but is outlined by finely drawn lines. Elegantly, and free of all geometric rules, his “Große Kurve 2” (Great Curve 2) in Blickachsen 13, snakes over the lawn, finally to climb upwards in a dynamic movement. Mentally, one can chart its subsequent course as an open form as well as a closed one – unbound, incalculable, and yet marking out a space. Outside edge, energy line or wave currents – Kricke’s sculptures translate the unseen structures and possibilities of space into fleeting metallic lines.
Norbert Kricke studied sculpture in Berlin until 1947 and took part in documenta 2 and 3 as well as, in 1964, the Venice Biennale. In the same year, he was appointed professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he was Rector from 1972-1981.