With Markus Daum's “Singener Kapitell” and Klaus Prior's “Begegnung”, two sculptures were created in 2010 that renew the tradition of figurative sculpture and explore the potential of anthropomorphic sculpture. This is extremely interesting, as for a decade the design of the human figure was considered hardly compatible with the requirements of art in public spaces.
Both large-scale sculptures impressively illustrate that figurative sculpture can always make a significant contribution to the design and transformation of public space if it is also specifically conceived for the concrete location of its installation and has the power to raise existential questions in terms of content and design. Both works of art are not backward-looking, but contemporary and capable of changing the space around them: “The theme of man in all its facets has not become obsolete today. The artistic task is to find a contemporary form for it” (Markus Daum).
Markus Daum's “Singener Kapitell”, placed at the interface between urban and landscape space, deliberately sets a dynamically rising, expressively moving form, organically worked out of the material, against the constructively cubic town hall, thus linking it with the historic town garden. The dramatically torn open “head”, which opens and closes depending on the viewing angle, stands for the existence of man.
Markus Daum, who has studios in both Berlin and Radolfzell-Böhringen, is one of the renowned sculptors in Germany who have dedicated themselves to the renewal of figurative sculpture. His works are exhibited in museums and galleries in Germany and abroad, as well as in the Euregio Bodensee, and can be found in public spaces in many German cities and institutions (including the Reichstag building in Berlin / fountain design in Heilbronn / Richard Drautz-Stiftung Heilbronn / Städtische Galerie “Fähre” Bad Saulgau / Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Karlsruhe).
Text and editing: Kunstmuseum Singen
