Hans Scheib
*1949 in Potsdam
Wedding
The figure expressively raises a clenched left fist in the air, the right index finger points to the ground, the mouth spits fire, black tears are streaming from the eyes. The sculpture seems – despite its relatively small size – monumental, expressive, and loud.
Scheib refers to the events of the so-called Blutmai of 1929 in the “Red Wedding”, the working-class district in which numerous civilians, communist demonstrators, and bystanders were killed during violent conflicts with the police that lasted for days.
The wood sculptor relocated from East to West Berlin in 1985 and later shared a studio in Wedding with the painter Peter Herrmann, who had also been expatriated. In his works, Hans Scheib likes to highlight the narrative elements of his figures. They are clearly integrated into a narrative structure; there is an apparent ‘before’ or ‘after’. Scheib’s figures speak of the artist’s clear position on his time, of the desire for change and protest, and they show the suffering he perceives in an unadorned way.
