Man with Green Shirt

Balkenhol attracted international attention in 1987 with his contribution to the 'Skulptur Projekte Münster'. For this now legendary exhibition of public sculpture, he created a slightly smaller scaled 'Man with Green Shirt and White Pants', which he positioned against a brick firewall, perched above a tobacco shop. Often produced to be exhibited in public places, Balkenhol's wooden sculptures of anonymous 'Everymen' counteract through their mundane nature and rigid impersonality the glorious expression of famous public effigies. "He does not seek to recapture the heroic glory of bygone periods but rather demonumentalizes the figurative statue by thrusting the most unremarkable men and women onto pedestals historically reserved for heroes and heroines." (N. Benezra, 'Stephan Balkenhol: Refiguring a Tradition', in 'Stephan Balkenhol', Ostfildern-Ruit 1995, p. 23.)