A Rediscovery in 20th-Century Sculpture: An Analytical Look at Hanna Korflür and “ZEIT – LEBEN – RAUM”

One of the most distinctive figures to have shaped Marburg’s cultural landscape for decades, the sculptor Hanna Korflür (1925–1993) is having her place in art history firmly re-established through a comprehensive retrospective at Kunstmuseum Marburg on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth. Titled “ZEIT – LEBEN – RAUM” (Time – Life – Space), this exhibition presents the artist’s creative process — in which she deliberately avoided static perfectionism and made variability a way of life — to viewers within the broad panorama of 20th-century art and in dialogue with current aesthetic debates. Running until 15 February 2026, the selection serves as a reference point for academic and artistic circles seeking to explore the intellectual depth behind Korflür’s technical and motif-based diversity.

The cornerstone of Hanna Korflür’s artistic philosophy is her conscious resistance to the aesthetic rigidity that flawless smoothness can produce. Her guiding principle — “In order not to solidify within perfection and smoothness, I avoid uniformity in technique and motif selection” — manifests itself in her works as a constant formal search and material experimentation. This approach transforms Korflür’s sculptures from mere objects into dynamic dialogues between the resistance of the material and the artist’s vision. At the heart of the exhibition stands her 1976 work “Gletscherspalte” (Glacier Crevasse), which stylizes a raw natural formation through polished wood while treating the internal voids and surface tensions of the form as spatial problems.

The artist’s relationship with the concepts of time, life, and space builds a bridge between the formal concerns of 20th-century modernism and the organic flow of life. For Korflür, space is not merely the void surrounding the sculpture; it is an experiential field defined by the sculpture’s own mass and one that invites the viewer inside. The asymmetrical balances and variations in surface texture in her works symbolize the effect of time on matter and the non-uniform rhythm of life. While presenting these ontological quests in a chronological framework, the exhibition at Kunstmuseum Marburg also makes visible the echoes of Korflür’s work in contemporary sculpture.

“ZEIT – LEBEN – RAUM” is not merely a witness to an artist’s life story; it holds critical importance for understanding how material and form could serve as instruments of liberation in 20th-century sculpture. Korflür’s legacy revives in Marburg’s historic atmosphere as a manifesto that dismantles the imposed molds of perfectionism and underscores the aesthetic value of error, texture, and diversity. This retrospective, on view until 15 February 2026 at Biegenstraße 11, marks a turning point that will once again gather the academic attention this important female figure of German modernism rightfully deserves.