As an artist, Erwin Wurm is characterized by a particularly fine sense of humour and irony. His designs and their realizations now appear countless when it comes to seemingly "banal", "everyday" motifs in his art.
Starting with sculptures made from dust and found materials, he soon developed the "One-Minute-Sculptures", which caused a sensation and illustrated his criticism of society and the art world with an ironic twist. Then there are the "sausages", which he humorously and self-critically refers to as self-portraits. His shifts in scale and proportions, his "narrow house", the oversized "cornichons" and his "flat cars" have also become famous.
Erwin Wurm is a master of the ironic visualization of feelings about life. He describes his childhood home very closely: "We were beaten at school. And the fact that we got a spanking and the math teacher put us across the table and hit us with a compass was all normal," says Erwin Wurm. "It was only afterwards that I realized that it wasn't normal. Or at least very special. And then I wanted to work about it. Then I took my parents' house and made it narrow, including the furniture and the rooms. As soon as you go in, you feel claustrophobic and cramped and it really gets to you."
Erwin Wurm: One-Minute-Scuplture © Erwin Wurm
In his wonderfully ambiguous One Minute Sculptures, which are only funny at first glance, Erwin Wurm takes the concept of sculpture literally and deconstructs it in the process; his "Fat Car" or "Fat House" wittily criticize consumerism and yet are immediately accessible. Wurm fearlessly manipulates and deforms his melancholic-looking protagonists, whose paradoxical actions, grotesque grimaces or strained poses pose fundamental questions about normality, the sense or nonsense of artistic conventions and human action.
For the exhibition at the Ludwig Museum, Erwin Wurm is planning a wall piece for the first time, based on his paintings consisting of words as well as a compilation of various "One-Minute-Scupltures" and his multifaceted drawings and watercolors.
September 3 to November 23, 2025
