Manfred Winkler’s Statuettes – Shy Monumentality

Abstract

The poet Manfred Winkler is hardly known as a plastic artist. This essay is a descriptive meditation on the unique style of his statuettes, said to embody a tension between distinct sculpture and raw matter. Influenced by Central European Modernism, especially Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit, Winkler maintains a unique style that bridges tradition and modernity. Unlike the Israeli “Bezaleli” school, Winkler remains loyal to the committed expressiveness of artists like Käthe Kollwitz. The essay explores Winkler’s plastic style, termed “shy monumentality,” as a blend of Central European Modernism’s humility and his poetic naiveté. This naiveté, informed by Schiller’s conception of the term, gives his sculptures an ambiguous complexity, which is the focus of this essay.