Future exhibition

Erwin Wortelkamp – Translucencies

01.06.2025 – 17.08.2025

Erwin Wortelkamp (born 1938 in Hamm/Sieg) is deeply engaged with nature, particularly in the sculpture park he designed, “Im Tal,” and in Acquaviva (Italy), which is reflected in his sculptural and graphic work. In close dialogue with nature, he also draws inspiration from the human form. “Perhaps a Tree” is the title he gave his first sculpture in the newly created landscape park in 1976: it marked the beginning of a continuing preoccupation with the inner core of the tree, its immense power, as well as its vulnerability. He sees it as his own “alter ego.”

Erwin Wortelkamp is internationally known primarily as a sculptor. However, his graphic oeuvre, comprising more than 4,000 sheets and created over the course of more than six decades, has received less attention to date. It ranges from sketches for projects and actions, through architectural designs, to independent, free works. Color has played a prominent role in these works since 1986 at the latest, coinciding with his second home in Italy. In serial cycles, Wortelkamp explores formal and content-related aspects, occasionally linking art-historical references with existential aspects. Here, artistic processes develop as if in a continuous dialogue. He experiments with the materiality of the different papers, scratching, cutting into them, opening up the surface of the sheet, integrating natural materials, and covering the ground with saturated color tones. Last but not least, Wortelkamp utilizes the possibilities of woodcutting and embossing.

For Erwin Wortelkamp, ​​”translucencies” therefore not only refer to visible, formal acts of sculptural design, but also to physical and spiritual aspects. Every form, every color, every dialogic principle—be it in the sculpture, on paper, or in the written text—becomes an existential question. The current presentation is intended to be the first intensive dedication to this extensive body of work and to explore the question of penetration.

 

Errwin Wortelkamp: Acquaviva 127/00, 2000, Leinöl, Terpentin, Pigment auf Papier, 100 x 96,5 cm, Foto: © Gunther Balzer, Kaiserslautern © Erwin Wortelkamp