Artwork of the month February

Georg Malin, Z-Würfel, 1990/97

Georg Malin

*1926 in Mauren


Z-Würfel, 1990/97


Chromium-nickel steel
340x340x340cm

Liechtenstein artist Georg Malin's steel sculpture stands in the square outside the Vaduz post office building. With its square footprint defining its fixed site, it faces all four sides of the surroundings, its dynamic diagonals inviting people to walk round it and to view it while moving. The Z-Würfel  (Z-cube) creates an interior without screening it off completely from the outside. It allows us to look inside and through it, and even by just looking through it we can see the "Z" the right way round.

Malin focused on the cube and the letters of the alphabet in several phases of his work. As a work commissioned for the large courtyard of Disentis Abbey in 1988, he placed a massive bronze cube at the centre of a round basin lled with water in 1988. The sides of the cube are crossed by diagonals on the front faces and diagonals on the rear faces, thus making up the abbey's cross logo. While studying the three-dimensional and spiritual qualities of the cube – that highly perfect Platonic body – Malin realised that some capital letters can be written on its square sides. On this basis, the artist began by creating a series of massive letter cubes varying the formal principle of the Disentis cube, before going on to form the particular letter completely in the round. Translated into three dimensions in this manner, the originally two-dimensional character can be experienced not only as a representational symbol, but also as an abstract form with physical presence.

After studying at university and training to be a sculptor, Georg Malin worked as a teacher, freelance artist and scientist, also becoming politically involved in Liechtenstein politics. As conservator of Liechtenstein's State Art Collection from its foundation in 1968 until 1996, he was formative in building and organising the collection.

<b>Georg Malin, Z-Würfel, 1990/97</b>
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein highlights a work from the permanent collection each month throughout the year. Works from the collection of the Hilti Art Foundation are also included in this series on a regular basis.