Granite Bleu de Vire, cut

Like all of Ulrich Rückriem’s sculptures, this work derives a large part of its effect from the imposing stone that was used to make it. The size, haptic quality, and vibrant colors of the granite are characteristics that the artist strives to retain and emphasize in his sculpture.
A roughly 6-meter-tall granite block from Normandy was split down the middle. The two resulting pieces were ground and polished on the side that would face the building facade, and then reassembled, but intentionally misaligned. The final product is a massive and primitive looking stele that tapers slightly towards the top.
From the front, it appears that the artist’s only – very restrained – intervention was the gap and misalignment between the two pieces. From the back, however, the smooth surface reveals the extent of the artist’s work. The result is a progression from the man-made to the natural – from the architecture of the building to the processed back of the sculpture to the predominantly natural front of the stone and the nearby plant life.
Originally created for the former Westfalenbank on Huestraße, the sculpture has been located in front of the Kunstmuseum Bochum since 2008 as a gift to the city of Bochum.

Additional information: www.artibeau.de/1580.htm