Dieter Kranzlein

Dieter Kränzlein took on an apprenticeship as a stone sculptor when he was 20-year-old, inspired by the work of a stonemason that he met. After completing his apprenticeship, he accidentally met with Hungary-born painter-sculptor Franz Dakáy, who lived in the same village. Visiting Dakáy’s studio, Dieter immediately knew what he wanted his future to be. He decided against formally studying art and instead became a personal student of Dakáy. After four years, Kränzlein started his studio as a self-employed artist. He works primarily with Norwegian marble and Mooser limestone, out of which he creates freestanding sculptures and wall reliefs. Using an angle grinder, he transforms the shape and surface of the marble and limestone into objects with regular and irregular grid patterns giving the stone rhythm and movement. The combination of his artistic signature and the material properties result in unique works of art. His marble pieces reflect light when played in the sun through their crystalline properties, whereas limestone with its iron packed inclusions is looking fragile and porous. In his recent works, he has started to apply ink to the marble and limestone. Using red, yellow, green and blue ink, he transforms the original materials once more. From a distance, the natural skin of the material is hidden by these colours, but at a close range, the original surface with its carved and grinded looks has a strong impact on the viewer. It is as if one can feel the inherent time contained within the stone and the countless days and weeks that went into the making of these objects. Over the last 20 years, Kränzlein’s works have been exhibited at prestigious art fairs in Germany and Switzerland as well as in the USA, Canada and Australia. His work is part of numerous collections, including the Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Museum Biedermann, Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, and City of Overland Park, Kansas.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

If you’re thinking about decorating your space with abstract sculpture, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

You don’t have to look for a piece that demands attention. Find a work of abstract sculpture that speaks to you. As is the case with any abstract art, whether it’s sculpture, an abstract painting or a grouping of prints, you can select a work for your living room or dining room, for example, that will either casually fade into the background or serve as a focal point. When you’re thinking about how to arrange your furniture and decor, consider color, texture and what kind of energy you’d like a specific room or corner to evoke. Abstract sculpture can go a long way in elevating a home, and its history is interesting if you’re shopping for a new piece today.

As a pioneer in naturalistic forms and figures that vividly express emotion, Auguste Rodin is often called the father of modern sculpture. His work in the 19th and early 20th century broke with artistic conventions and inspired modernism, leading to a new period of avant-garde abstraction.

Among the first artists to push abstract sculpture into the mainstream were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They helped define the movement of Cubism, which focused on deconstructing the world abstractly.

Later in the 20th century, the artistic movements of Italian Futurism, Dadaism, Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and minimalism all contributed to the advancement of new and more abstract sculpture designs. Italian Futurism, for example, celebrated movement, dynamics and technology in abstract sculpture. These movements passed down ideas that continue to inform abstract sculpture today.

Browse a range of modern abstract sculptures, postmodern abstract sculptures and other kinds of sculpture on 1stDibs.