Ernst Hermanns

In 1987 Münster-born artist Ernst Hermanns exhibited a two-part sculpture of untreated, gleaming stainless steel in the interior courtyard of the Westfälisches Landesmuseum. Both elements of the sculpture formed geometric bodies: a circular disc lying flat on the ground and a slender, upright cylinder.

Hermanns' sculpture was perceived as an autonomous, non-site-specific work, which established spatial rather than thematic references to its exhibition location. In the mid-1960s Hermanns began using abstract, stereometric bodies which through their volume, scale and distance to each other charged the space with tension. The horizontality of the disc on the ground contrasted with the upright cylinder, which inevitably drew the eye upwards. This balance of horizontal and vertical orientation established correspondences with the façade architecture and the courtyard paving, both likewise characterized by vertical and horizontal structural forms.

Daniel Friedt