Gormley / Lehmbruck: Calling On The Body

The Lehmbruck Museum is pleased to present the most extensive exhibition of  work by  British sculptor Antony Gormley in Germany to date. Internationally renowed as one of the most significant and influential sculptors working today, Gormley has long expressed his admiration and interest in the works of Wilhelm Lehmbruck for their inwardness, sense of poise and calm, and their reflexive potential.

This  exhibition has been conceived as a dialogue between the two artists, showcasing key works created almost a century apart. It draws parallels between Gormley and Lehmbruck, where both use the body as a site of transformation that seeks to evoke a state of being and quiet contemplation.

“Calling on the Body” will encompass the auratic Lehmbruck Wing and the entire museum, covering an area of 3000 square metres, with the artist’s sculptures acting as punctuation points throughout the building. It includes a selection of works spanning the breadth of Gormley’s practice; from his seminal early lead works, to the more recent Slabwork series that transform the bodyspace into architecture. One major installation will also be shown: the 300 life-size concrete bunkers of Allotment II (1996), while Drift VI, an energy field containing a body-shaped void, appears to be floating in the museum‘s atrium.

The work of Antony Gormley (b.1950, London, UK) has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally with recent exhibitions at Museum Voorlinden, The Netherlands (2022); National Gallery Singapore, Singapore (2021); The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019);Delos, Greece (2019) and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2019). He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. He was made a knight in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014 and has been a Royal Academician since 2003.

On the cover: Antony Gormley, Field, 1984-85 © the artist

Source: Lehmbruck Museum