Von der Heydt Sculptures I and II

For the reopening of the Von der Heydt Museum in 1990, Tony Cragg created two corresponding bronze sculptures, which are positioned on two pedestals to the right and left of the staircase leading into the building.

Each sculpture consists of two different vessels merging together in a process of metamorphosis.

Sculpture I is based on the shape of an antique amphora, which transforms into a soda can in one soft fluid movement, so that the opening of the container stretches out into a long slit and they both merge into a single hollow body. In addition to being connected to each other, the two base forms are further united by the dark patina of the bronze casting. This makes the two objects indistinguishable in terms of the original material – one being ceramic, the other being sheet metal — as well as age and method of production. As abstract hollow bodies that form a connection, they appear detached from these factors and their original function. “The mediation between the ancient relic of historical relevance and the aesthetics of a contemporary commodity occurs smoothly and continuously.” (Carmen Klement, Von der Heydt Museum)

Sculpture II is also based on an early historical form – a mortar, which is a tool that has existed since the start of human culture. This upright vessel has gone through an amazing evolution to become a plastic bottle, an object that is now produced, used for cleaning products, and thrown away millions of times. As in a museum, the history of mankind is made concrete here by means of two artifacts. Both containers are enlarged exponentially and their materiality is made uniform by the bronze casting. The wide opening of the mortar swings upward in order to continue downward in two ridges to the narrow spout of the horizontal detergent bottle. This transformation allows two simple familiar forms to develop into an extremely complex overall form, which the viewer can only comprehend on closer inspection by walking around the sculpture.

The pair of sculptures were commissioned for the museum’s Turmhof entrance.