Female head - Gale

“My father brought some tools for manual work in granite that belonged to the grandfather from an old family wardrobe and silently handed them over to me: a two sided pickaxe, a stoning hammer, a heavy mallet, a chisel for granite. I was actually holding the  in my hands. Not to lose the approaching battle, I had to tackle the work methodically. I learnt the stone structures and layers. I learnt that one had to be much more careful than in the case of sandstone or marble. My work in granite became my greatest happiness,” this is how Joachim Utech described his attitude to creative work. Forming a part of German Expressionism, the works of the artist from Białogard belong to some of the most interesting phenomena in the Pomeranian sculpture of the 1st half of the 20th century. They usually tackle the universal themes related to the human existence. In the form of simplified, austere forms of human heads, Utech showed the universal, abstract concepts related to our existence: love, joy, sorrow, sadness and suffering. Dynamically vibrating texture of thickly hewn blocks of marble, granite or sandstone and light, beautifully refracting on diverse surfaces, determine the unique character of Utech's works. This dynamic, sculptural presentation of a female head, which personifies a wind-storm that determines the suggestiveness of the rendition and the artistic quality of the piece.

Dariusz Kacprzak