Markus Karstieß: Friendship request No. 3

The Von der Heydt Museum's third ‘friendship request’ is aimed at the sculptor Markus Karstieß, who consistently and innovatively devotes himself to the archaic material of ceramics and lends it contemporary relevance. His sculptures, some of which are large-scale, are both glamourous and enigmatic. The shimmering glazes of the surfaces have a painterly effect, the forms are idiosyncratic and sometimes disturbing. They oscillate between human and mythical creature, between figuration and abstraction.

Markus Karstieß uses the ‘friendship request’, a series of exhibitions in which the Von der Heydt Museum invites renowned contemporary artists to engage with the museum's rich holdings, as an opportunity for self-examination. His works enter into direct dialogue with the famous major works from the Von der Heydt Museum's collection of classical modern art.

Karstieß' selection is less orientated towards a specific formal language, epochs or art movements. Instead, he chooses works that touch him and in which he recognises parallels in the artistic approach as counterparts for his unusual staging. Surprisingly, he finds more points of reference in painting, such as Edvard Munch and Paula Modersohn-Becker, than in sculpture.

Markus Karstieß was born in Haan in 1971 and studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the class of Jannis Kounellis. He had solo and group exhibitions in museums in Germany and abroad. Since 2017, he has headed the Fine Art Ceramics class at the Institute for Artistic Ceramics and Glass at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. As a curator, he is involved in numerous exhibition projects.