Background
Stephan Balkenhol was born on February 10, 1957, in Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. He is the youngest of four sons of a high school teacher and a housewife.
Stephan Balkenhol
Lerchenfeld 2, 22081 Hamburg, Germany
The University of Fine Arts of Hamburg where Stephan Balkenhol studied from 1976 to 1982.
1988
Stephan Balkenhol in 1988. Photo by Imagno.
2007
Stephan Balkenhol at the opening of the new drawings space at the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Photo by Bertrand Rindoff.
2013
Stephan Balkenhol works on a sculpture of Richard Wagner in his studio in Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo by Uli Deck.
2014
Stephan Balkenhol works on part of the monument for French resistance fighter Jean Moulin in his studio in Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo by Uli Deck.
2014
Stephan Balkenhol with a British artist Toby Cragg (left) in front of Balkenhol's wooden sculpture "Tempre piu" in the sculpture park in Wuppertal, Germany. Photo by Bernd Thissen.
‘Mann und Frau’ by Stephan Balkenhol purchased for $195,914 at Ketterer Kunst Art Auction, Munich, in 2017.
The Knight's insignia of the Order of Arts and Letters which Stephan Balkenhol received in 2014.
1988
Stephan Balkenhol in 1988. Photo by Imagno.
2007
Stephan Balkenhol at the opening of the new drawings space at the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Photo by Bertrand Rindoff.
2013
Stephan Balkenhol works on a sculpture of Richard Wagner in his studio in Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo by Uli Deck.
2014
Stephan Balkenhol works on part of the monument for French resistance fighter Jean Moulin in his studio in Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo by Uli Deck.
2014
Stephan Balkenhol with a British artist Toby Cragg (left) in front of Balkenhol's wooden sculpture "Tempre piu" in the sculpture park in Wuppertal, Germany. Photo by Bernd Thissen.
Lerchenfeld 2, 22081 Hamburg, Germany
The University of Fine Arts of Hamburg where Stephan Balkenhol studied from 1976 to 1982.
‘Mann und Frau’ by Stephan Balkenhol purchased for $195,914 at Ketterer Kunst Art Auction, Munich, in 2017.
The Knight's insignia of the Order of Arts and Letters which Stephan Balkenhol received in 2014.
Sculptor Ulrich Rückriem, one of Stephan Balkenhol's mentors at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.
Stephan Balkenhol was born on February 10, 1957, in Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. He is the youngest of four sons of a high school teacher and a housewife.
Stephan Balkenhol studied for a while at a European School in Luxembourg where his father taught at that time. In 1975, he finished high school in Kassel, Germany.
The following year, he entered the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. He studied under a German sculptor Ulrich Rückriem till 1982. Nam June Paik and Sigmar Polke were among his tutors as well.
The start of Stephan Balkenhol’s career can be counted from the beginning of the 1980s when he produced his first figurative wooden sculptures. The early works featured male and female nudes placed on plinths that corresponded to the aesthetics of classical Greek figures. The human figures and the notions of human existence became the central subjects of his subsequent sculptural compositions from then on.
The signature plank of all Balkenhol’s works carved out of a variety of woods like poplar and Douglas fir is the inexpressiveness of the models and the retention of the natural imperfections of the material like knots, grain, and cracks. The color then helps the artist to accent the structure of his compositions and to endow them with a minimum set of emotions.
Since the middle of the decade, Stephan Balkenhol has undertaken the outdoor commissioned staff. A couple of his first works in the area were installed on London’s River Thames. In 2018, he designed a fountain for the project 11 fountains, initiated in Sneek, Friesland, The Netherlands. Afterwards, Balkenhol has executed many sculptures for public places around Europe and the United States.
By the 1990s, Balkenhol’s repertoire of works generally composed of human models was completed by the figurines of animals, hybrids, and architectural forms. Although being primarily the part of run-up, drawings, sketches, and photographs occupy an important place in his practice as well.
Stephan Balkenhol has tried his hand in academics. He has taught at the Univesity of Fine Arts of Hamburg and Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. In 1992, he joined the professor’s staff of the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe.
Stephan Balkenhol is considered as one of the leading figures in the sculptural art of Germany. He is among the artists who brought back the figures to contemporary art. Balkenhol has elaborated the unique style in figurative sculpture providing the viewers with the possibility to retrace the artisanal process and the sculptural approach.
Featuring ordinary persons instead of well-known historical personalities, Balkenhol reframed the traditional perception of sculpture.
His art is acquired by the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Gallery, the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, and the Seattle Art Museum among others.
Balkenhol has been a recipient of such fellowships as Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship. In 2014, he obtained the French Order of Arts and Letters.
In 2017, ‘Mann und Frau’ by Stephan Balkenhol was purchased for $195,914 at Ketterer Kunst Art Auction in Munich.
Quotations: "I’m perhaps proposing a story and not telling the end, just giving a beginning or fragment. There is still a lot for the spectator to complete..."
Stephan Balkenhol was named an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts in 2016.
