Background
Wolfgang Laib was born on March 25, 1950 in Metzingen, Germany. He is the son of Gustav Laib, a doctor, and Lydia Laib.
Wolfgang Laib was born on March 25, 1950 in Metzingen, Germany. He is the son of Gustav Laib, a doctor, and Lydia Laib.
In 1968, Laib enrolled at the University of Tübingen, where he studied medicine. Disillusioned with western medicine, he came to view the natural sciences, as well as most other modern thinking, as limited for their dependency on logic and the material world. His search led him to Eastern spiritualism, philosophy and pre-Renaissance thought. At this point Laib engages himself in parallel studies of Sanskrit and eastern philosophies. In 1972, Laib decided to finish his medical studies, but with the full intent of embarking on the career of an artist.
In 1976, Wolfgang held his first exhibition at gallery Mueller-Roth in Stuttgart, showing the early Milkstones. This was the beginning of many exhibitions around the world over many decades. In 1979 and 1981, he exhibited his works in New York for the first time.
In 1982, the artist represented Germany at the Venice Biennale. The following year, in 1983, Laib started to work with rice, beeswax, sealing wax, Burmese lacquer and some metals. At first, he made smaller beeswax pieces, which then developed into major large scale pieces like beeswax chambers and stepped pyramids called "Zikkurats". His selection of those materials are deeply meaningful, but they do not at all represent the limit of his intent in their essence, rather they serve as vehicles to by far greater complex ideas.
In 2000, the artist created the first permanent wax chamber in Roc del Maure in the Pyrenees mountains near Perpignan.
In 2006, Laib bought a studio in a small village in the hills near Madurai in South India. Spending there at least two months yearly, he created a whole body of new works with black granite, white ashes among some other materials.
Some time later, in 2010, Laib made a proposal for a huge Brahmanda – 20 m long – on Pulimalai, a bare granite hill near Madurai, South India. Three years later, his works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At the same time he realized a permanent wax chamber in the Phillips Collection in Washington D. C.
In 2014, the artist was invited to create a huge wax corridor – 50 m long – in Barjac, Southern France.
During his lifetime, Wolfgang took part in numerous exhibitions at different galleries, including Gallery Konrad Fischer, Gallery Sperone Westwater, Buchmann Gallery and others.
Currently, he lives and works in both Hochdorf, Germany and Tamil Nadu, India.
Quotations:
"I did with my art works what I wanted to do as a doctor. I never changed my profession."
"I am not afraid of beauty, unlike most artists today. The pollen, the milk, the beeswax, they have a beauty that is incredible, that is beyond the imagination, something which you cannot believe is a reality-and it is the most real. I could not make it myself, I could not create it myself, but I can participate in it. Trying to create it yourself is only a tragedy, participating in it is a big chance."
"Art can have connections over many centuries or thousands of years."
"For me, it's always very beautiful that you can do something today in the 21st century which is not an imitation but which has a connection to art which is 4,000 years old."
Laib considers himself as a vehicle for ideas of universality and timelessness, that are already present in nature.
Wolfgang Laib married Carolyn Reep in 1985. The couple has a daughter — Chandra Maria.