The snag with skulpture

This volume provides a systematic survey of Alfred Haberpointner’s sculptural production over the past two decades.

Through more than one hundred color and black-and-white plates, it documents bodies of work in wood, iron, lead, and bronze, and maps the operative axes of the oeuvre: between figuration and geometric reduction, carving and construction, mass and aperture.

The sequence emphasizes facture as a primary bearer of meaning. Close views register cutting, chiseling, joining, and the calibrated retention of tool traces; wider shots establish how surface, edge, and volume are organized into stable typologies and incremental variations. Attention to scale—ranging from compact pieces to room-defining ensembles—clarifies how serial modules, reliefs, and freestanding figures engage light, proximity, and circulation.

Installation images analyze the spatial behavior of the works rather than merely illustrating objects, articulating how tilt, spacing, and orientation shape the reading of form. A dedicated section documents “The Snag with Sculpture” at the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, tracing curatorial layout and the dialogues staged among materials and formats.

As a photographic reference, the book consolidates a coherent corpus for research and teaching: it enables comparative reading across materials and phases of work, and it situates Haberpointner’s practice as a sustained inquiry into the relations of surface, structure, and spatial address in contemporary sculpture.