Ewerdt Hilgemann

The recorded working language is German, Dutch and English. Places of work recorded in the authority are Hardinxveld-Giessendam. Residence is recorded at Amsterdam. Work by Ewerdt Hilgemann is recorded in the collections of Stadsarchief Rotterdam, Kröller-Müller Museum, Museum Arnhem, CODA Museum and Van Abbemuseum.

• Name — Ewerdt Hilgemann • Born — February 21, 1938 • Birthplace — Witten, Germany • Website — https: www.hilgemann.nl

Ewerdt Hilgemann was born in Witten, Germany and after a brief study at Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster, he attended Werkkunstschule and University of Saarland in Saarbrücken. In the 1960s he had residencies at Kätelhöhn Printers in Wamel, Asterstein in Koblenz and Halfmannshof in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Hilgemann started to exhibit his work across Europe in the early 1960s before moving to Gorinchem, the Netherlands in 1970. From 1977 to 1998 he taught Concept Development at the Sculpture Department of Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Since 1984 Hilgemann lives and works in Amsterdam. His main workshop, however, remained in Hardinxveld-Giessendam, near Gorinchem.

Hilgemann's bodies of work from the 1960s focused on wall pieces, consisting of wooden dowels, as well as serial and minimalistic installations ("Space Structures") out of large resin or steel tubes. In the 1970s, reliefs and mostly wooden abstract geometrical sculptures followed, based on grids as well as the cube. The 1980s meant a change in thinking, when Hilgemann made his first photographic work Random Sculptures (for herman de vries), followed by a series of granite boulders e.g. referencing to the (maximum) cube that can fit inside a sphere by cutting away what was needed to reveal the cube, yet showing all parts of the process. In 1982, for the first time with an audience, he rolled a perfectly polished marble cube (150x150x150 cm) down hill in the famous Carrara quarry, where Michelangelo already got his marble from. The result was a scratched and battered piece, but it still remained recognisable as a cube! Likewise, in 1983 he brought two perfectly polished spheres to a controlled explosion, resulting in fractured pieces carefully accounted for (3 parts for the white Carrara marble, 9 parts for the dark Bardiglio marble). The same year, during sculpture symposium East-West Forum in Dordrecht, Netherlands he made his first welded steel cube, which he threw down from the rooftop of an abandoned factory. These sculptures and their planned destruction depend to a large extent on random circumstances. However, these can also be premeditated by stipulating their conditions. According to the artist, this equally is the case with his so-called "Implosion Sculptures", which Hilgemann started in 1984 and that are still going on. The perfectly welded stainless steel geometrical shapes are vacuumed by a pump (or by means of water), causing the body to slowly give way to the outside pressure, resulting in a new form, yet leaving a visual reference to the original. The most used shapes are cubes, square columns and pyramids. In 2014 Hilgemann was invited by the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee to exhibit his work on the median along Park Avenue in New York City for a period of three months, starting in August. For this prestigious environment Hilgemann designed new works for seven locations between 52nd and 67th Street, all made of stainless steel in different configurations, single pieces as well as groups of two or more.

2021 Threesome, EUREF Campus, Berlin, Germany 2020 Three of a kind, Smalley Sculpture Garden, California 2017 Imploded pyramid, Grugapark, Essen, Germany 2011 Three Graces, Bad Soden, Germany 2010 Imploded Column, New Pacific, Beverly Hills, California 2006 Quint, Hervormd Lyceum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2005 Double-Up, Aegon Collection, The Hague, Netherlands 2004 Panta Rhei, City of Hünfeld, Germany 2000 Cerberus, Investment Bank Berlin, Germany 1996 Imploded Cube, Il-San Sculpture Park, Ko-Yang City, Korea 1995 Imploded Column, City of Sárospatak, Hungary 1992 Fountain, City of Ingolstadt, Germany 1992 Delft Implosion, Technical University Delft, Netherlands 1991 Plus Minus, City of Gorinchem, Netherlands (co-production Jan van Munster) 1991 Homage to Brancusi, City of Galati, Romania 1990 Reflection, City of Nivala, Finland 1989 Tension, City of Rotterdam 1987 Birth, City of Heemstede, Netherlands 1986 Rolling Cube, City of Sion, Switzerland 1986 Natura Artis Magistra, University Nymegen, Netherlands 1986 Imploded Column (Elblag Implosion), Elblag, Poland 1986 Imploded Pyramid, City of Kleinsassen, Germany 1985 Imaginary Landscape, IWO, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1985 Exploded Sphere, Sculpture Park, Dordrecht, Netherlands 1983 Finnish Landscape, City of Kemi, Finland 1979 Field of 32 Cubes, City of Brielle, Netherlands 1978 1+2=3, City of Gorinchem, Netherlands 1974 Three equal volumes, City of Gorinchem, Netherlands 1972 Cube Structure, City of Gorinchem, Netherlands 1969 Space Structure (Bijlmer), City of Amsterdam, Netherlands • Illustration — Space Structure (1969). Bijlmerpark (a.k.a. Nelson Mandelapark), Amsterdam • Illustration — Cube Structure (ca. 1972). Gorinchem • Illustration — Three equal cubes (1974). Brick. Gorinchem • Illustration — Exploded Sphere (1983). Carrara Marble. Dordrecht • Illustration — Cerberus (2000), Berlin • Illustration — Two equal volumes (2017-2023). Stainless Steel, Anningahof, Zwolle

His work is associated with conceptual art. He belonged to Neue Gruppe Saar. He worked at Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Amsterdam.