Albert Hettinger

The catalogue to accompany the retrospective of the work of Albert Hettinger (1964–2022), the sculptor from Bitburg, includes stone sculptures from various creative periods: from the trained stonemason’s prizewinning final assignment to the sculptor’s last large-scale stele, which he was unable to complete on account of his dwindling strength. Hettinger, whose focused form-finding was influenced by various longer visits to Asia and his exploration of Zen culture, in the main created sculptures made of basalt stone. The sculptural work proper was preceded by the artist’s dialogue with the stones he selected, only individual areas of which were worked on usually. The contrast between the surfaces shaped by nature over millennia and the sharp-edged, smoothly polished, shapes carved out of the interior of the stones, could hardly be more pronounced.