Horst Egon Kalinowski (1924-2013) - Lot 237

Horst Egon Kalinowski (1924-2013) Caisse Torii, 1961 Sculpture, assembly of a keel on a leather-covered wooden core, signed, titled, dated June 13, 1961, located in Paris and numbered 461 on the back. 155 x 77.5 x 18 cm Provenance: Daniel Cordier Collection, Paris (Worn, damaged and missing) Related literature : Franz Joseph van de Grinten & Vera Bachmann, Horst Egon Kalinowski, Das plastische Werk, Werkverzeichnis 1960-1997 [The sculptural work, Catalogue raisonné 1960-1997], Cologne, Letter Stiftung, 1997, work described with numerous references to publications and exhibitions and reproduced on page 152 Born in Düsseldorf in 1924, Horst Egon Kalinowski came to Paris in 1950 and continued his training at La Grande Chaumière, in Jean Dewasne's abstract art studio. A genius at collage, rigorously selecting the materials he uses with meticulous technique, Kalinowski first excelled in his creations on paper. Daniel Cordier, who exhibited his work in his gallery from 1958, was his greatest supporter. The Tableaux-objets, "Bildschreine" or Tableaux-châsses, the culmination of his early work, take shape by completely invading the canvas surface with extra-pictorial materials. The caissons or crates extend this approach into the field of sculpture, often monumental, where the voluptuousness of the materials - leather being the preferred material - achieves a strange balance between the sacred and the profane. This approach is justified by the artist's desire for "something much more tactile... a material that can be the vehicle of my emotions". This champion of misappropriation, using the most trivial of salvaged objects, is a marvellous artist with a fascinating sensuality, often hiding behind the apparent static serenity of his poem-objects a more underlying evocation of dreamlike symbolism and disconcerting magic.