bavarikon4UDescription
The work of Beate Kuhn (1927-2015) proves that work with clay cannot be reduced to pottery. In the course of her more than 50 years of work, she has created a large number of sculptures out of ceramics and porcelain with an unmistakable signature. Resulting in works that are characterised by a vegetal design, which are also rooted in the concepts of 1960s and 1970s modernism at the same time though. Rhythm, seriality and the penetration of space are therefore pivotal for the form of her fantastic creations. The starting point for this is always the basic forms made on the potter's wheel, such as bowls, plates or small bowls, which the ceramicist often assembles into sculptural volumes in increasing or decreasing size. Her "SPIEGEL" is composed of a larger plate shape and bowls in different diameters, with the variation of the individual sizes being emphasised by divergent glazes in yellow and ochre. While Beate Kuhn was primarily known to a small circle of ceramics lovers during her lifetime, her work has recently been seen in a larger context and is regarded as a serious position in post-1945 sculptural art. It is thanks to a donation by the Mannheim architect Klaus Freiberger that Die Neue Sammlung has been in possession of an important complex of works by Beate Kuhn since 2003.