Oberursel. "The Museum of European Art, located in Clarence, New York, cordially extends its best wishes to the exhibition of sculptor and painter Kurt Arentz's works at the Leonardis Gallery. Our connection with the artist lies in our reverence for his achievement as well as our esteem for his cosmopolitan influence. Our museum is proud to possess several works done by Arentz. America owes to Kurt Arentz, among other works, the portrait busts of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. So we offer our congratulations to the organizer, Mrs. Gabriele Kriessler, on a happy meeting with Kurt Arentz in person and in his works."
The congratulatory telegram, sent from the director of the Museum for European Art in New York so that Gabriele Kriessler could read it aloud on the opening day of the Arentz exhibition, already says almost everything about the artist whom the gallery owner invited to Oberursel. Kurt Arentz, who has immortalized in bronze such great Germans as Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, as well as Austrian Herbert von Karajan, is not only one of the most famous portrait sculptors of our time. Gallery owners all over the world are scrambling for his animal sculptures.
In a brilliant speech, Gabriele Kriessler related to her guests the tradition of animal portraiture which is thousands of years old, extending from the stone age to the time of the impressionists. In accordance with this tradition, autodidact Kurt Arentz found his artistic identity in the authentic translation of the power and energy inherent in animals and man. In his own words, the reason he finds it difficult to sculpt women: "When sculpting the bust of a man, one can simply proceed in a more rustic fashion, including more elevations in the wrinkled forehead and eyebrows. With women, on the other hand, one must instead take something away."
Impressively infused with a concentrated intensity and a penetrating emotionality in a powerful and even mystic way, such are the works of the man whose aim is the following: "To create with my art, works whose values are valid for past, present, and future." Analogous to the colossal meeting with Kurt Arentz, the Leonardis Gallery is showing twelve paintings by artist Christoph Frisch. This is the premier of a series of twelve scenes from the life of the Old Testament Joseph.
Copyright 1999 Museum of European Art