About Stefan Pietryga

Stefan Pietryga was born in Ibbenbüren, Germany and lives and works in Potsdam. The sculpture Pappel (-blau, ulme) belongs to the group of poplar sculptures that Stefan Pietryga has been developing since the 1990s and which have been exhibited internationally in various exhibitions, preferably in public space.

Pietryga is a wood sculptor who has been exploring the foundations of sculptural signs in urban, natural urban and natural contexts since the early 1990s. In his visualisations, he refers to baroque, urban Gesamtkunstwerke as well as romantic-idealistic traditions.

The vertically rising figure is reminiscent of the pyramid poplar and resembles a pillar. It symbolizes the mediation between heaven and earth. The tree, with its roots firmly connected to the earth, points to the sky with its growth. Pietryga uses this concise observation to create a figure from a tree trunk, in this case an elm, resembling the poplar, colouring it with an ultramarine blue pigment. We know this colour from culture and art history. In the past it was extracted from the rare and precious lapis lazuli and used mainly in sacred divine scenes. So, this shade of blue, has always stood for the spiritual, the ideal, the divine space: heaven. Ultramarine blue has a metaphysical and transcendental aspect, which Stefan Pietryga uses in his work. Today, the pigment is produced chemically. This colour and its technical application as a pure powder on the carrier material wood, materialises the idea behind the work and allows the presence of the colour in the open air. The poplar, as the bearer of the colour, transcends the given space in terms of content and stretches towards the sky as the place of an aesthetic-utopian transcendence.

During ARTZUID 2023, the sculpture enters into a dialogue with its surrounding trees, especially the poplars. The tall growth, the greenery and the rustling of nature’s leaves correspond in contrast to the artistically developed structure of the poplar as a sculpture.