Norbert Kricke

Norbert Kricke (* 30 November 1922 in Düsseldorf; † 28 June 1984 ibid.) was a German sculptor. Through his metallic spatial sculptures, he became one of the most important representatives of German post-war modernism.

Norbert Kricke began his studies in 1946 in Berlin at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste where Richard Scheibe appointed him as his master student. In 1947 Kricke moved back to Düsseldorf and established a studio there. During this time, he worked as a freelance artist. Two years later, he created his first “Raumplastiken” (spatial sculptures), which consist of filigree steel lines that stretch dynamically through the room. Working mainly with thin, flexible metal, Norbert Kricke created sculptures with dynamic movement that allow space and time to melt together.

The first exhibition and Norbert Kricke’s collaboration with Yves Klein

Major solo exhibitions took place in 1955 at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and the Municipal Gallery in Istanbul. In 1957, a solo exhibition followed in Paris at the Galerie Iris Clert. Along with Robert Adams and Yves Klein, Kricke won the competition for the artistic design of the New City Theatre in Gelsenkirchen. Norbert Kricke then creates a relief for the “Kleines Haus”, which emphasizes the “floating lightness of the construction” (Werner Ruhnau, 1992).

Upon the suggestion of Siegfried Giedion and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago awarded him the Art Prize in 1957. In 1959 Kricke took part in the documenta in Kassel. That same year, he worked with Walter Gropius on the water design for the new university building in Baghdad, which in the end is not realized. On the occasion of the second Federal Garden Show in 1969, Kricke was invited to create a sculptural water basin in Dortmund’s Westfalenpark.

International activities of Norbert Kricke

In 1961 the placement of the sculpture “Große Mannesmann” in Düsseldorf was celebrated. Furthermore, major solo exhibitions are held at the Museum of Modern Art and the Lefrebe Gallery in New York. The following year, Norbert Kricke was the only German sculptor represented at the world exhibition “Art since 1950” in Seattle.

At the Venice Biennale in 1964, the artist was shown in the German pavilion with a solo exhibition. In addition, he participated again in the documenta in Kassel in the same year. He received a chair of sculpture at the “Staatliche Kunstakademie” in Düsseldorf. In 1965, during an extended stay in the USA, a large spatial sculpture is installed in front of the County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Many exhibitions follow, including his second solo exhibition at the Lefrebe Gallery in New York in 1968 and the exhibition “Norbert Kricke and His Students” at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn in 1969.

In 1970, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon. In 1971, he received the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize of the City of Duisburg and in 1975 the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class.

Director of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

With his appointment as director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1972, Kricke established the tradition of the tour of the academy, an annual exhibition of students’ semester projects held on the premises of the academy.

Norbert Kricke died in Düsseldorf on June 28, 1984.