About the Artist Wilhelm Loth

The female body lies at the centre of the work of Wilhelm Loth (1920–1993). Born in Darmstadt, the sculptor took his early bearings from Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Ernst Barlach and was encouraged by Käthe Kollwitz to devote himself entirely to sculpture; he later attended Toni Stadler's sculpture class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. From the mid-1960s Loth increasingly set stereometric forms – often cubes – against his figures and torsos, creating a charged confrontation of the soft and the hard. His work as a metal sculptor is counted among the New Figuration. From 1958 to 1986 he taught as professor of sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, and in 1964 he took part in documenta III. Since 1995 the Art Prize of the City of Darmstadt has borne his name.