Purism in Concept, Form and Materials

Single-handedly – literally, without heavy machinery or cranes– the sculptor Hermann Rosa constructed studio spaces as accessible large-scale sculptures made of exposed concrete. On the one hand, they are open and cleverly composed surfaces, resembling the works of De Stijl or Bauhaus in the „“dematerialized” spiritual classic modernity style, while on the other hand they consist of commonplace heavy materials, similar to the down-to-earth béton brut of his contemporaries Paul Rudolph or Le Corbusier. Radically and precisely he focused on the spatial and objective, foregoing any kind of color and decoration, with all details playing a subordinate role to the clarity of shape. Based on new and historic photos, sketches, plans and texts, his exceptional body of work is examined and placed in an international context.