Wilhelm Mundt Aluminium

The Buchmann Galerie is presenting a new group of Trashstones of polished aluminum by Wilhelm Mundt. These works occupy a special place in his oeuvre, which has now grown to include more than 550 sculptures. Whereas normally his Trashstones are finished by polishing the final layer of colored acrylic, here Wilhelm Mundt takes an additional step by subjecting the work to another, far-reaching process. 

The sculpture, which is actually finished, is completely molded and cast in two aluminum shells. Before the two halves are assembled and closed, the artist places the original Trashstone back into the aluminum sculpture. By the logic of the oeuvre, the outer form of the aluminum Trashstones is the result of the process of making the inner one, the core that is hidden from the viewer. 

The interesting thing is that the aluminum Trashstones are not produced in the usual way—completely by hand in the artist’s studio—but rather Wilhelm Mundt gives the Trashstones that are ready to be cast to a foundry where they are molded and cast. The assignment of a work number becomes important here. The number is assigned chronologically according to the principle for ordering the oeuvre as a whole, which from a purely practical perspective prevents the forms from being confused, which could easily happen when the work is being performed by others at the foundry. The number of the Trashstone becomes the work number of an industrially produced object, creating a distance between the author and the producer, between manual work and technical production. 

Wilhelm Mundt has been working on the Trashstones series since 1989. It began with Trashstone 001. The open-ended series makes it clear that the oeuvre continues with each new sculpture. 

The installation of the aluminum Trashstones reveals Wilhelm Mundt to be an artist who reflects on the traditions of sculpture and at the same time renews them by permeating them with ideas and his craft. 

His sole exhibitions in 2010 included a show at the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg. His works can be seen in public spaces in the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden Wuppertal, in the Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, and at the University of Bayreuth. 

In 2007 Wilhelm Mundt received the Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture from the Royal Academy London for his work. Since 2009 Wilhelm Mundt has been professor of sculpture at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.