Not only his “Erna“ will continue telling his stories
Amazingly and proverbially he was somehow carved from that wood that he loved so much. A man, like a tree with deep roots, strong position and permanent impression. His wavy hair and his good-natured smiling, his sometimes a little embarrassed honest eye wink and the force of his work were another impressive experience only yesterday. Today they have become a highly appreciated memory. At the age of just 66 the sculptor Wolfgang Schott died on Sunday, 7 July 2019 after a short, severe illness.
In the midst of anticipation and preparations for our this year‘s sculptors’ symposium the news about his illness and death hit us like a punch. The realization of the largest wooden sculpture in Germany, his “Erna“, we wanted to have experienced together. For this we brought the 100-year-old Douglas fir with its mighty trunk from the forest by the lake. With a model of his “Erna“ in his hands Wolfgang Schott chose the tree and enthusiastically celebrated the wood.
On one side there were his huge and powerful giant heads, animal shapes and his abstract sculptures but on the other side, there was his quiet, patient, careful and delicate work as a restorer much asked for. The precious Christ figures and the sacral art he had devoted his work for decades, had inspired him at the same time. Some of his works are impressive testimonials of it and ask unspoken questions. His artisan farm is still full of pieces of wood, stumps and trunks They were waiting for him and he was waiting for them until they told him what they wanted to become. That‘s how he presented it himself, and it can be read about in the obituary of the “inFranken.de”. Now we are allowed to imagine enthusiastically what Wolfgang Schott would have created in dialogue with his wood. At his and our “Erna” we know it exactly. That‘s how she will come into existence by the help of his sculptor colleagues and will remind us for decades, as Germany‘s largest wooden sculpture of an upright artist, who will surely smile at us, satisfied: Certainly with a slightly embarrassed, friendly wink in his eyes.
Thank you, Wolfgang.
Your art will stay
„In every memory, no matter how beautiful, there is always some melancholy about the fact that even the most beautiful moment we must irreversibly entrust to eternity.”
Heinz Nitschke, author
We are privileged to invite artists to Hohenfelden, where they can create their works in inspiring nature and under a free and friendly sky. After the symposium, we will all leave and return home. Some of us, unfortunately, forever.
His Erna sets off for a dip in the lake in Hohenfelden. Who does not know it, the look skywards when we remember our loved ones? In that way, looking up at Erna is also always a moment of remembrance for Wolfgang. He passed away after a short and grave illness on July 7, 2019, aged 66. He was himself carved from the same wood he loved so much as a material for his art. His death hit us like a hard blow during preparations for the 2019 Symposium. Fortunately, he had left us with the idea of what Erna would look like, thus enabling his colleague Tim Weigelt to create her based on his vision so that we could gaze up to her and remember Wolfgang Schott.
