Description

The Social Reliefs of Olaf MetzelWith his work group of aluminium works, Olaf Metzel has not simply reintroduced the genre of relief in contemporary discourse in a surprising and confident way, he also reconnects with his own earlier work, in which he had already expanded on this particular art historical subject. The present volume follows this arc in a very clear way, owing, in particular, to materials and texts by the artist printed here for the first time. It begins with the well-known work »Türkenwohnung Abstand 12.000,- DM VB«, in which the artist advertised in Berlin in 1982 the lease of an apartment where beforehand, he had »hacked into the walls« and had left a swastika in the main room. Unforgettable and to date still good for public outrage is the sculpture, a wreath made of concrete, leant against the wall of the Kunstverein Württemberg in Stuttgart in 1984 under the coarsely brushed on word 'Stammheim'. And finally with its new serie of aluminium works Olaf Metzel presents us a social relief of the present American reality.