Over Jörg Herz
LIFE
Jörg Herz studied Visual Communication and Art at the School of Applied Sciences Pforzheim from 1992 to 1996, among others with Prof. Detlef Birkfeld and Prof. Manfred Schmalriede. Semester abroad at Leeds Metropolitan University (United Kingdom). He is a scholarship holder of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Bonn. He lives and works in Munich.
Herz has worked as a creative director in advertising agencies for clients such as BMW, Beck's, Siemens, Tempo, Mon Cheri, UBS and funny frisch. His graphic work has received numerous national and international awards: Type Directors Club New York, 100 Best Posters, Berlin Type in Gold, IF Award.
ARTISTIC WORK
In 2016 - after 20 successful years in the advertising world - he was looking for more. In the process, Herz found his way back to his original passion, sculpting. He discovered the chain saw as his tool, spruce wood as his medium.
The focus is on the human being in all his facets. Herz sees the small, spontaneous, random in gestures and posture. And he captures this, sometimes whimsically, sometimes idiosyncratically, but always with disarming honesty.
"The saw does not forgive mistakes. It is fast, loud and brutal, says Herz. And just as life sometimes plays fast, loud and brutal with us, Herz's characters gain their very own identity through this rough craftsmanship." Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 November 2018
Herz works outdoors all year round, right next to the railway tracks. The archaic nature of the material, working in the fresh air - this is how he experiences the creative process as an expression of radical acceptance.
"It is only through the courage to make mistakes that something new is created," he says. "Sculptures with their very own aesthetic and authentic signature."
One is allowed to feel the emergence of the work. Details are a secondary matter. For Herz's human sculptures are sensual and direct. The wood grain and the rough traces of work remain visible. The characterful wood of the spruce reinforces the expressiveness. Annual rings, knots, unevenness - nothing is hidden, the immediate is important. Showing what is.
The contrast of the wood with individual coloured areas gives the sculptures tension. Despite their modest dimensions, they stand out with a strong character. A dialogue is created between the work and the viewer, resounding in edges and colours.
