Zwischen Zwei Welten I / Between Two Worlds I

The sculpture “Zwischen zwei Welten I“ by Berto Lardera is located, along with others, on the terrace of the Lehmbruck Museum, which connects the museum’s interior with the surrounding Kant Park. The two worlds between which the sculpture is situated would thus be, in a very immediate sense, art and nature.
It could, however, just as well be seen as located between volume and surface, between geometrical and organic form or between calculation and intuition. The Italian artist, who had lived and worked in Paris since 1947, designed his sculptures using flat iron sheets which, cut out, shaped and interlocked, describe a volume and result in a complex shape. In this case, it is a rounded shape made up of several sheets with a number of recesses and apertures, which almost describes an irregular sphere. Another work by the artist, entitled “Dramatische Gelegenheit VII” (Dramatic Opportunity VII) can be found by the side of the museum facing the street. It was created twenty years later and a comparison will illustrate both the developments and continuities in Lardera’s practice.