Courtesy DeWeer Art Gallery, Otegem, Belgium

Stephan Balkenhol, "Dreier-Gruppe" ("Group of Three") (1985). Copper beech; 78½ x 78½ x 11¾

Courtesy DeWeer Art Gallery, Otegem, Belgium

"Schiff/Weiblicher Akt/Männlicher Akt"("The Boat/Female Nude/Male Nude")(detail) (2006). Wood carvings on boat

   November 2008 Field Guide

William Eggleston

Anton Kannemeyer

The Brussels Dream

Lynne Marsh

Frances Stark

Donald Rodney

Oranges and Sardines

Renzo Martens

Dóra Maurer

Munio Weinraub and Amos Gitai

Sharon Lockhart

Terence Gower

Jacques Bedel

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Statuary usually confers nobility on those it depicts. Not so with the rough-hewn wood figures by the German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol, which emit a palpable aura of humility. The soft poplar, Douglas fir, and African wawa that Balkenhol carves (with power saws and chisels) retain the many marks of the figures’ making, and their meagerness of expression gives the works a flat, graphic quality—think Alex Katz’s Manhattanbots without the New York glamour. This month, a small army of Balkenhol’s works will be on view in Hamburg, where their 1957-born maker once studied art and is now being honored with a retrospective. Also on display will be wall reliefs and the artist’s sculptural forays into the animal kingdom—which are funnier than his people and less meek. The awkward grace and playful profundity of Balkenhol’s characters derive from their limits, with one notable exception: his considerably less humble work, The Boat/Female Nude/Male Nude (2006), will not be on view—it’s simply too big to fit through the gates of the Deichtorhallen’s main hall.

"Stephan Balkenhol" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' November 2008 Table of Contents.