‘These faces transcend any personal connotation; only in rare exceptional cases do they resemble portraits; rather, they approach a kind of idealised image, appearing as secular objects serving an unknown cult. They come from afar, like the stones from which they are hewn. (…)
With these fieldstones, Peter Makolies has reaffirmed his artistic roots; at the same time, he has delved deeply into the history of art and imagery, and has opened up a further dimension of monumental simplicity in his work.”
— MATTHIAS FLÜGGE — in the exhibition catalogue
‘Not much has changed in the art of sculpture over the last twenty thousand years. Images are still carved into stone – images in our own likeness. Our knowledge of all the things others have already done is a burden of experience. Only a few are gifted with the ability to bring to life the unburdened values of a child’s drawing. Perhaps the circle is complete when the end resembles the beginning. Let us suppose that humanity does indeed bring about its own downfall and that of nature; then there remains a justified hope for the sculptor that future beings will sift through the rubble of our good old Earth in search of signs of the past. New successors to Winckel and Schlie will find what has survived the cataclysm. They might be stones carved in the image of lost humanity. And they will reflect on what it was like back then.’
— PETER MAKOLIES — ‘
’ catalogue, ‘Erste Phalanx nedserd’, Nuremberg, 1991
What makes our current catalogue special is that, almost without exception, Peter Makolies himself took the photographs of his sculptures for it, thereby offering an insight into the artist’s perspective on his own work – ‘… then the photograph itself becomes a sculpture, as has happened here in Makolies’ austere black-and-white images.’
— MATTHIAS FLÜGGE — in the catalogue
