HERBERT GOLSER

Golser sculpts with both marble and wood. His methodology for both is strikingly similar, reducing the mass of the material to its most fragile inner core. On this occasion, we shall be showing his sculptures in wood.

Figurative wooden sculpture is very much a Tyrolean tradition, yet these historical works were never known for their refinement and elegance but were, instead, rather crude in their workings. Moreover, they are rooted in their time. Golser’s works contain a timeless quality. They are made today but don’t actually fit, in any obvious way, into the contemporary debate. As this so-called debate is extraordinarily fast moving, as with so much in our contemporary world, there is something deeply reassuring about an artist who steps off the contemporary jet stream and merely creates spectacular art works, which contain a precious inner poetic quality.

The sculptures demonstrate the artist’s great technical ability as well as his sensitivity to his material and the seemingly endless possibilities he sees in it.

Golser’s sculptures present a deafening cry for the preservation of our natural world. Although the works do not contain any overt political or social message, the pieces reveal the beauties and riches to be found in the inner workings of nature. He reveals unsuspected depths in the various hardwoods he chooses to work with, taking large chunks of the raw material and over many months eking away at their power and strength to eventually reveal an extreme state of fragility. For the artist this process represents a spiritual search which reflects his pantheistic view of the world.

Golser’s home is a small village in the midst of forests and woods which provide him with his raw material. Being able to source his material from his immediate surroundings makes us aware to what degree our ‘big city’ existences have removed us from the umbilical relationship people have when they live in close proximity to nature. A hard-backed monograph entitled ‘formwandeln’ (‘changing shape’) curated by the artist and published by the German publishing house KERBER traces the artist’s overall career and will be available to purchase from the gallery.