JOACHIM BANDAU

Bandau has had an uninterrupted schedule of major museum and gallery exhibitions throughout Europe dating back over forty-five years; his work is included in over thirty major public collections in Germany and Switzerland. Groundbreaking in his exploration of form; Bandau in the late 70′s moved the sculpture ground to underground. As with Carl Andres development of the floor sculpture, and Bruce Naumans concrete casting of the empty space under his chair, this new art form: Bodenskulptur, (floor sculpture), gave Bandau independent and important legitimisation.

The first series of works following the automobiles exhibited in Documenta 6, 1977, were Bunkers, these were lead covers over wooden cores. The next stage were Särge (coffins), and Mumienkästen (boxes for mummies), continuing his reference to the human form, and condition.

Begun in 1983, his series of watercolors are created using a precise addition of transparent rectangles of gray wash over one another to create a unified black field that plays tricks with our depth of field. The layers give a sculptural element to the work that refer to his earlier practice.