January 4 – March 24, 2019
Opening Reception: January 4, from 5-7 p.m.
Meet special reception guests, Berthold’s daughter, Ursula Murch, and grandsons, Chris & Robert Hamilton.
Watermark Art Center is thrilled to announce their upcoming exhibit A Work In Process: The Artwork of Joachim Berthold featuring sculpture and drawings by West German artist Joachim Berthold (1917 – 1980). The public is invited to the opening reception, held January 4 from 5 – 7 p.m., where they can meet Berthold’s family, special guests Chris Hamilton and Ursula (Bertold) Murch.
The central theme of Joachim Berthold’s artwork is “man.” Not the external manifestations of the human form, but rather, the essence of the human being. Berthold believed man to be a spiritual being, always evolving, constantly learning from the knowledge that was passed on from those who came before. He portrayed man as a work in process while in the physical world.
Berthold grew up surrounded by artists and knew he wanted to be a sculptor from an early age. He studied the works of Rodin, Michelangelo and Brancusi. He also admired the work and evolution of Picasso. Berthold was continually learning, questioning and thinking about man’s evolution and how art plays an essential role in that development. He believed that “a successful work of art combines appropriate form with significant content.”
Berthold dedicated himself to represent the possibilities of man in spite of the sufferings and torments to which life exposes him. His sculptures are featureless, massive human forms representing man’s solidity. It is this solidity and grounded-ness that one can interpret as the possibility of hope. In some of the sculptures, the figures break through massive walls or evolve from masses, speaking to the transformation of man. The sculpture of human figures creating a human wall represents the strength that is found in the community of others.
His drawings and prints were also consumed in the same theme as his sculptural work. The figures and colors are kept to a minimum so that the message remains clear. Berthold spent most of his professional life dealing and grappling with this theme that was so much part of his being: the evolution of man’s human-ness to be better than where he was before.
Joachim Berthold (1917 – 1990) was a West German sculptor who worked predominantly in bronze. His work has been shown in museums and galleries throughout the world, including New York, Munich, Milan, Vancouver and more.