Ilhan Koman

Private Collection, Sweden (acquired directly from the artist circa 1960)
Private Collection, London

Condition: This work is in good condition. There is slight marks of rust due to the age of the work. The wooden base is a modern addition. Colour: The catalogue illustration is very accurate.
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Throughout his career, Ilhan Koman experimented with numerous media, styles and techniques in which he created sculptures that are figurative and nonfigurative, static and kinetic, purely aesthetic and purely practical. Koman's art took him on a continous search for new shapes, geometric innovations and tangible solutions to problems that he faced early in his career. His treatment of iron, as seen in the present work, can be interpreted as a personal take on sculpture's foremost metallurgical challenge: bringing metal to life.

It was in the early 1960s, shortly after his arrival in Scandinavia, that Koman forged some of his most remarkable masterpieces. This period, which the artist dubbed his 'Iron Age', marked an important turning point in his international career. Koman's frenetic creative process was fuelled by a desire not only to craft beautiful sculpture, but also to portray the unique quality of iron, namely its malleability. Although at first glance it appears to be the result of a chaotic struggle between metal, welding torch and hammer, Koman's forging is incredibly precise, as can be observed in the fine details of his work. These, most evident in areas where the iron is bent and welded onto the composition, are the artist's implicit signature.