Page 45 - Studio International - February 1966

Left
Ursula Querner
Two Snorkel Divers 1963
Bronze
Height 5 1/2 in.
Collection : Dr. Hanns Theoc
Flemming, Hamburg-ReinbE
Photo: Rolf Rose
Right
Bernhard Heiliger
Flower of the Wind 1964
Bronze
52 x 21 1/4 x 17 3/8 in.

extreme, an absolute use of artistic means, one can see last five years in Italy—where she lives on Ponza, a
in these migofs connections with the art of the past; minute, rocky Mediterranean islet. Swimmers and divers
these are indicative of the new situation which takes wearing masks and carrying harpoons are the leitmotiv
the form of surrealistic phantasy in the works by other of her bronzes—cast by melted-wax process. Time
artists which have already been referred to. The ormolu- seems suspended, as prehistory and the present inter-
like colour of the spatially-sculpted works of Bernhard mingle. An exhibition in the Hauswedell Gallery in
Schultze and their extravagant shapes recall at first the Baden-Baden enabled one to see these snorkel divers
features of rococo art. But the bizarre forms are more crouching on the beach and metamorphosed—with their
akin to Bosch, Breughel, Altdorfer or Grünewald, and horned masks—into fauns; to see the masked
also to Turner, Ensor, Odilon Redon, and Moreau— swimmers diving obliquely or almost vertically into the
whose works made a deep impression on Schultze ocean. Pan and Neptune enter our own world : here is
when he was in Paris. Their 'grotto' shapes also recall Pan among the bikinis and Neptune in the zingy
the fantastic architecture of the Spanish Art Nouveau outfit of the snorkel diver.
architect Antonio Gaudi. 'The more technological our The new bronzes of Bernhard Heiliger, which were
environment becomes, the greater is the longing to exhibited at the Franke Gallery in Munich on the
escape it and go in search of the amorphous form', said occasion of the sculptor's fiftieth birthday at the end of
Schultze in 1954. 1965, are becoming increasingly lighter. Their volume,
The opposite to this phantastic-amorphous art is to be like that of the Phoenix (with which this phase began
found in the Gruppe Zero, founded in 1958 by Heinz in 1960), seems to leave the ground, released at a
Mack (born 1931), Otto Piene (born 1928) and tangent. Bird's Cry, Moonbird or Flower of the Wind—in
Gunther Uecker (born 1930) ; this group had a major such contemporary creations the ancient dream of
retrospective in Hanover last summer. Mack, Piene and Daedalus seems realized. q
Uecker are the creators of an anti-lyrical, visually-
orientated, constructivist art which achieves new
optical effects with pictures resulting from a virtual
ballet of metal, nails, smoke and light. Their works bear
witness to the phenomena of a technical epoch—an age
of electronics, cybernetics, and space exploration—for
which they wish to provide a new aesthetic equivalent
comparable to the tendencies of American Op art.
An individual means of attempting a plastic delineation
of the theme 'figure in space' has been developed by the
Hamburg sculptress Ursula Querner (1921) during the