5 Muhammad Shahid - 2 years ago
The sculptor Erich Hauser would have turned 90 in 2020. Coming from a humble background in the Swabian Alb, after an apprenticeship as a steel engraver, he acquired the necessary knowledge and skills as a sculptor largely self-taught. His breakthrough to public recognition came in the sixties, when he quickly rose to become the leading German steel sculptor of his generation with his geometric-abstract sculptures, which were characterized by a rough, expressive style of an "enthusiastic production" (Heinz Fuchs). Awarded the Young West Art Prize in 1963, he took part in documenta 3 and 4 and in 1969 achieved the highest international recognition when he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Sao Paulo Biennale.
In the following year he was elected to the Berlin Academy of the Arts, of which he remained an active member until the threshold of his last decade. With his works, which have meanwhile matured into spacious, shiny silver column formations, he advanced to become one of the most successful public sculptors in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s. In addition, he distinguished himself as a sponsor of young artists as well as art mediator, was a co-founder of the Forum Kunst Rottweil, organized highly regarded art projects in public space in Rottweil and made his property in Rottweil a place of lively meeting of people well known far beyond the borders of the region Art and life, architecture and nature.
In the 1980s, he became increasingly interested in expanding his property into an impressive sculpture park, which he and his art collection transferred to a non-profit foundation for the promotion of the arts in 1996. The sculptor Erich Hauser died on March 28, 2004 at the age of 73 on his estate in Rottweil am Neckar.
