In 1968, Rückriem extracted the maximum regular cube possible from a dolomite block. Sawing it on each of its faces, he cut the cube into two equal wedges: the simplicity and restraint of this gesture is synthesised in the separation of the cube into practically equal parts and their subsequent reunion. Using this sculptural synthesis as a starting point, The Last Fifty Years continues with the presentation of wooden beams placed perpendicularly on the floor to form a square; a row of steel reinforcing bars with their ends rolled up and folded; an old iron plate found and completed with a new piece to form a rectangle; a slate board cut in half longitudinally and in five transverse sections, each the half of the previous one; an iron bar hammered into a flat surface; a dolomite stone relief in the shape of a wedge; and a flat floor sculpture in MDF which transfers the artist’s integral concept of drawing and the line, based on the systematic union of straight lines between seven randomly marked points, into the sculptural.
Heinrich Ehrhardt
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