Skulpturen-Gruppe / Group of Sculptures

In 1956, the sculptor Eva Niestrath-Berger gave up figurative work in favour of abstraction, where she sought to transfer the principles of Concrete Painting to sculpture. For her, the artwork was primarily an object in space defined by its constructive conditions, materiality, and surroundings. In this case, seven red lava blocks are lined up on a base at roughly the same height. Steps, grooves, and rectangular cavities turn them into different individuals, to which the grown patina on the red stone contributes. Although this is a completely abstract work, the basalt blocks acquire a strong individual presence in this arrangement, which is also reflected in their popular epithet “the seven departmental heads.”

As an artist, Eva Niesrath-Berger significantly shaped Hagen’s public spaces. Not only did she create more publicly accessible works in this city than any other artist, but also, in addition to sculptures, reliefs and fountains, applied art such as the differently sized tree grates for Elberfelder Straße and Friedrich-Ebert-Platz from 1978 to 1982. The seven stelae in Dr. Ferdinand David Park were created in 1964 as architectural art for the new city hall and installed in the interior courtyard in 1965. In 1988, they were relocated in Dr. Ferdinand David Park in front of the AllerWeltHaus.