The first Dutch or German artist to have a show on Park Avenue, Hilgemann developed his method in the early 1980s after experimenting with white wooden wall pieces that captured light, influenced by the ZERO movement. Hilgemann’s “implosion” process begins by fabricating perfect, geometrically pure stainless steel forms, which are meticulously welded and polished to satin gloss. After the pieces are complete, the artist slowly pulls the air out with a vacuum pump, putting the natural atmospheric pressure to sculptural use and collapsing the forms into their final shape. In a delicate balance of planning and chance each piece acquires individual character demonstrating unexpected and striking possibilities of the material.
“To me the implosion represents the inward spiral of energy to reach the core and mystery of matter, the ultimate beauty of creation,” says Hilgemann.
Hilgemann’s Park Avenue installation coincides with the first large-scale survey in the United States dedicated to the history of the German artist group ZERO (1957-1966), Countdown to Tomorrow: The International ZERO Network, 1950s-60s, which will open at the Guggenheim Museum in October 2014. As a student of Oskar Holweck (1924 – 2007), one of the early co-founders of the group, Hilgemann was directly influenced by the group’s approach and vision, particularly its interest in movement and light as artistic media. Occurring simultaneously, the two shows indicate the renewed interest in the United States in often-overlooked European movements. “The genealogy of Ewerdt Hilgemann’s work is just now becoming available to those of us who for the last 50 years or so have been nurtured on the historical accounts and critical debates that dominated art’s discourse in the U.S. and selectively excluded events and developments elsewhere,” writes critic and historian Saul Ostrow in the exhibition catalogue, which will be published later in the year.
Hilgemann’s Park Avenue installation will be accompanied by an exhibition of his work at Magnan Metz gallery, “Freeze Frame,” on view August 7 – August 21, 2014. In two rooms, the exhibition will feature models of all seven sculptures from the Park Avenue series alongside new work, created for this exhibition, as well as a video demonstrating the artist’s process. More information: [email protected].
The Hilgemann installation is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.