On June 1, 2024, the EUREF-Campus Berlin was completed with the opening of the Gasometer. Around 400 guests gathered to celebrate the new real-life laboratory of the energy transition. The gasometer offers an impressive view over Berlin from a height of around 66 meters and will be used for presentations, events and as a roof terrace in future.
On this day, Jonas Hödicke, together with Reinhard Müller, the founder of the EUREF-Campus, and Hermann Noack, presented three new pictures that are now hanging in the Gasometer. The middle picture, entitled "PALLAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR", was until recently on display in our gallery's current exhibition.
Jonas Hödicke | Karl Horst Hödicke – Meine Stadt, at the Noack Gallery until July 6, 2024. Interested parties also have the opportunity to view the three pictures by Jonas Hödicke in the new EUREF-Gasometer.
In his article in the Tagesspiegel, author Rolf Brockschmidt describes the strong interplay between the artworks of Jonas Hödicke and the recently deceased Karl-Horst Hödicke. The exhibition "Meine Stadt" - extended until July 6 - shows the artistic work of father and son. You can read the article here:
The cradle of bronze
The story of the Noack sculpture foundry begins in 1897 in an unventilated basement in Berlin-Wilmersdorf: when the young company founder Hermann Noack is not carrying his employees up the basement stairs, who are fainting while the molten, 1000° hot bronze is being cast, he discusses their sculptural projects with the up-and-coming young sculpture talents August Gaul and Fritz Klimsch and introduces them to the basics of their art. The name Noack quickly came to stand for something that is a promise for artists: a place where art and craftsmanship are not separated, but are fused together in the spirit of the artwork.
125 years later, the company is still run by a Hermann Noack, now in the fourth generation, and the most important names in the art world still turn to the foundry for their designs. This is where Anselm Kiefer, Alicja Kwade, Georg Baselitz and Tony Cragg have their monumental works realised, where the international art scene gathers to cast ideas into form.
The anniversary volume tells the great story of the foundry: how the unconditional belief in art was able to preserve a continuity of creativity in the midst of the dramatic upheavals of the times and how, across four political systems, two world wars and constant changes in society and art, the foundry worked tirelessly on the one, all-important thing - the work of art.
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In the new episode of WAS MIT KUNST, Johann König talks to Hermann Noack from the NOACK foundry. The traditional Berlin-based family business has been moulding designs by renowned artists for generations.
In the podcast, Hermann talks about the founding of the company 125 years ago and his grandfather's collaboration with various artists such as Henry Moore and Joseph Beuys. He presents the variety of casting methods, such as sand casting and wax casting, and talks about surface changes and patina. Despite the difficulties in acquiring young talent for this special craft, he passionately continues to run the company with a total of 40 employees in the foundry and the inspiring gallery spaces in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Our curator Isabella Mannozzi talks to the Berlin culture magazine VivArt about art, politics and the question of how to deal with a wide variety of artists. Her answer:
"Mit viel Charme, Geduld und Einfühlungsvermögen." (With a lot of charme, patience and empathy.)
Even after 125 years, the NOACK picture foundry brings change and tradition together by combining a very old craft with sustainable ideas. It is precisely the apparent contrast between art and entrepreneurship that creates an interplay that helps us to lead the gallery and foundry into the future together.
Here you can see a production by 2470 media, who visited our company and gained a filmic impression of the NOACK family business, the craft and the tradition. A tribute to bronze art and to working as a team.
As one of the world's most important artists, Georg Baselitz has reached another high point in his artistic career. He is accepted as a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts and at the same time a major retrospective is held at the Centre Pompidou. The large-scale sculpture Zero Dom will be on display for around 4 months (until 7 March 2022) in the courtyard of honour in front of the Academy.
The long-standing collaboration with the artist Georg Baselitz and the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac led to this spectacular large-scale project for the centre of Paris directly on the Seine.
The 9m-high black patinated sculpture shows 5 legs crossed together, arranged in the shape of a micadol in high-heeled boots - a recurring theme in the oeuvre of the 83-year-old Baselitz. When asked about the motif, the artist says that the leg with the boot is a kind of self-portrait.
In a statement issued by the gallery, Baselitz said that he was incredibly happy about his election to the Academie, but at the same time irritated that he, as a German artist, had been given such an honour.
We would like to congratulate Georg Baselitz and thank him for the great cooperation over many years.
The Hermann Noack fine art foundry is a traditional family business now in its fourth generation. The name Hermann Noack stood and still stands for an art business that both acts in the spirit of tradition and has moved with the times, producing sculptures of all shapes and sizes for sculptors.
The Noack foundry is characterized by great knowledge and skill, but also by empathy in the service of art, because without foundrymen there is no bronze art. In all these years, the company has always acted true to the motto: "Everything the artist wants must somehow be made possible." (Quote by Bernhard Heiliger)
This motto is based on the founding idea of the company - it was founded 124 years ago at the urging of two artists (Fritz Klimsch and August Gaul) and has been a recurring theme in the company's history ever since.
The company boss (Hermann Noack IV) still operates according to this credo today, his customers are among the most renowned in the contemporary art world, names such as Anselm Kiefer, Tony Cragg and Georg Baselitz have been having their works cast by Noack for years.
Worth mentioning is not only the technical know-how of our foundry, the skills of our employees, the manageability of monumental sculpture in our 4,500 square meter foundry built in 2010, it is also the competence to accompany a work of art from A to Z. This means that we take care of the model production and planning, the casting of the artwork, as well as its installation and transportation.
If you are interested, please give us a call or send us an e-mail. You are welcome to arrange a consultation with us.
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"Art foundries don't make art, they make crafts. This has been the case under tax legislation since 2014. Foundries would have to pay the higher VAT. Not even the tax authorities knew that. Now they are asking the foundries to pay retroactively" (quote from the radio station Deutschland Funk Kultur).
How you are treated by the authorities as a cultural worker or self-employed person in Germany.
Here you will be redirected to Deutschlandfunk and can read or listen to the very well researched article:
After more than 110 years at the Friedenau site, the need for a completely new production facility could no longer be ignored.
2010 was the year of change: Hermann Noack IV built a completely new foundry plus administration building, planned by Berlin architect Reiner Löneke. The so-called Kulturforum - a complex comprising a foundry, gallery, sculpture garden, restaurant and several studios directly on the Spree - covers a total of 10,000 m2.
The ensemble is intended to be a place for art, encounters, enjoyment and conversation, to provide a new forum for sculpture and to raise awareness of the art of casting. As difficult as bronze sculpture may seem at first glance - it often weighs several kilos - it offers endless possibilities in terms of spatiality, materiality, color and feel.
You can take a guided tour to see for yourself the beauty and complexity of the process of creating a bronze sculpture.
You can find more information about the architect Reiner Maria Löneke on his homepage:
Galerie Noack was founded by the current company director Hermann Noack IV. in 1997 in Varziner Strasse and moved into its new premises at Am Spreebord 9a shortly after the relocation of Bildgiesserei Hermann Noack in 2017.
The bronze sculpture is given a special stage in the 8-meter-high rooms with their bare concrete walls, allowing it to unfold in this special place of light.
Visitors are offered the opportunity to experience sculpture up close, and the works on display often weave a fine web of virtuosity of the artwork itself, but also of craftsmanship, history and connection to the company. The concept of the foundry's showroom played an overriding role at the time of its foundation.
In the meantime, we have expanded our concept to include other media such as painting and photography, i.e. in addition to the usual solo and group exhibitions with sculptors, we are showing renowned street photography in cooperation with the Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.
Would you like to be informed about our exhibitions and other activities at NOACK?
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Follow us on Instagram for interesting insights into the foundry
@noack_bildgiesserei at InstagramAm Spreebord 9
10589 Berlin