Norbert Kricke

Raumplastik Weiß-Blau-Rot, 1954

With the term Raumplastik the artist himself used to characterize his work. Connecting the terms ‘space’ and ‘sculpture’ seems perfectly natural for this art genre, but the relationship takes on a surprisingly new form in Kricke’s work. He no longer conveys space directly, in other words in a traditional, Euclidian way via volume, but as a function of movement in time, by analogy with modern scientific insights. Put in another way: here space no longer needs a three-dimensional core as a communicating medium, but is revealed directly and vividly through force vectors, through lines of movement. His sculptures’ lines are not seen as a closed graphic system, but reflect people’s movement in the space. The lines serve as a vehicle for activating the eye and the sensibilities. “My problem is not mass, is not figure, but it is space and it is movement—space and time. I do not want real space or real movement (mobiles), I want to represent movement. I try to endow the unity of space and time with form.” (N.K.)