18 march 2024, Yves Joris
Robert Schad, drawing with steel
The sculptures of Robert Schad (1953, Ravensburg) that currently adorn Antwerp's Falconplein are a testament to his artistic ability to push the boundaries of steel and transform it into an object that exudes both strength and grace. With distinctive steel lines dancing through space, his work creates a dialogue between art and environment: powerful yet graceful, rising from the ground like three-dimensional sketches. His sculptures are both robust and fragile, a paradox that invites the viewer to reflect.
Robert Schad, KNOX, COPPEJANS GALLERY. Photo: Wim Van Eesbeek
The sculptures of German artist Robert Schad can be found around world. The artist himself currently resides in Larians-et-Munans, where he established his own sculpture park in 2004. Belgium remains (to date) a blind spot. But if gallery owner Stijn Coppejans has his way, this too will become a thing of the past. In 2022, he exhibited the artist for the first time during the group exhibition Nature-Nurture on the relationship between nature and culture. He has now invited the artist once again for the exhibition Drawing with steel. During this exhibition, which runs until 28 April at COPPEJANS GALLERY, we not only get acquainted with his oeuvre in the gallery itself, but also with two outdoor sculptures, KNOX and LORNI, on Falconplein square. Schad's work is like poetry in steel, which each weld seam representing a word, each beam a line of verse and the entire sculpture a poem unfolding in public space. His art invites interaction, not only visually but also physically and emotionally, thus becoming an integral part of daily life.
Robert Schad, LORNI, COPPEJANS GALLERY. Photo: Wim Van Eesbeek
These two sculptures represent Schad's first large-scale outdoor works of art in Belgium, a testament to his artistic journey and ongoing quest to bend and shape steel into expressions of human emotion and natural beauty. With its reclining shape, KNOX invites passersby to pause, to follow the winding lines that tell a story of peace and contemplation. LORNI, on the other hand, reaches towards the sky as a five-meter-high ode to aspiration and resilience. Together, they form a poetic pair that embodies the essence of Schad's work: the fusion of the industrial with the organic and the robust with the graceful.
Robert Schad, GARKULL, 2023, COPPEJANS GALLERY
Within the walls of Galerie Stijn Coppejans, the discovery continues. Schad's original drawings are exhibited alongside smaller sculptures, which form the basis of his work. The spontaneous gestures that are the starting point of his steel creations stand in stark contrast to architectural sketches from which such creations often arise. These drawings, full of energy and movement, are the first steps in a process that ultimately leads to the impressive sculptures adorning the square. But Schad goes a step further. In a subsequent stage, he reduces his sculptures once again to work on canvas. Gallery owner Coppejans describes it as an evolution from the second to the third dimension and back.
Gallery and square become one in this exhibition, blurring the boundaries between art and living space, inside and outside. It is an invitation to everyone to participate in this artistic conversation, to not only view art, but also experience it and live with it. This exhibition, on view until the end of April, offers a rare opportunity to engage in dialogue with Schad's art. It is an invitation to reflect on how art can change our perception of the world around us and how it can be a source of inspiration and wonder, even in the most everyday environments.
Robert Schad, untitled, COPPEJANS GALLERY
