Hans Weissflog
All photos courtesy of the artist
"Klein und Fein" (German for "small and fine") is my motto. Contrary to popular belief, I believe that it is still possible to create good work by hand. I have never been able to understand why people feel that work created 100 years ago is superior to the work being created by artists today. After all, the equipment we have to work with now is much better than anything that was available to the artisan of years gone by. One has only to be willing to spend the required amount of time on the lathe. As a designer, I am always seeking out new possibilities and challenges. My work is always expanding by transforming these possibilities into reality.
Weissflog, from Honnersum, Germany, studied mechanical engineering and design. For over 33 years Hans has been driven by the challenge of creating highly precise, technical, and expertly engineered forms. Pieces are lathe turned, layered, and pierced through. In 1994 he received the highest honor for a German craft artist, The Lower Saxony State Award. The jury which selected Weissflog made the following comment about the power of his work: "The old wood turners' craft, its products and today's design language are, not without good reason, in conflict. Hans J. Weissflog, as a woodturner and designer, belongs to a small group of renewers of an often only nostalgic and curatorial pursued craft… With his work, the creating of vessels, boxes and free objects, he belongs to the undisputed magicians of the art of wringing every form from a piece of wood, above all physical and technical boundaries."
Works
Museum Collections
Corning Museum, Corning, NY
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
Gottorf Castle, Schleswig Holstein, Germany
Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin, Germany
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Musées des Pays de l'Ain, Bourg-en-Bresse, France
Museum for Arts and Crafts, Frankfurt, Germany
Museum for Arts and Crafts, Hamburg, Germany
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, Germany
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
Museum of Art,Mobile, AL
Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, Germany
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA