Esther Kläs
Esther Kläs
0/6 (rumba), 2013, concrete, bronze, pigment, stainless steel wire. 120 x 194 x 330 cm
Esther Kläs
over/all, 2020
oil stick and pastel on paper, 207 x 422 cm, 81 1/2 x 166 1/8 in
I was drawn to Esther Kläs’s work by its qualities of lightness, presence, and how it feels like it ‘registers with the body’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 27). What feels like relative spaciousness, or even emptiness, is actually trembling with a dialogue of physicality. Her work hovers between abstraction and figuration, object and space, movement and rest (Xavier Hufkens, 2015)
Action, activity, and mobility are all heightened states, even though ‘the sculptures can’t [move]’, however, the viewer can (Willborn). It feels like there is space to roam with these works, that being with and moving around them is necessary.
This dialogue feels particular to me, a sense of humanness lingers between the materials, the space, and the body – both the viewers and the artists. "It is easier for me to have a dialogue with something I can move around." (MoMA, 2012) I was delighted to discover a kindred spirit in Kläs as ‘the body is her implicit subject, whether abstractly referenced in the human size and shape of her sculptures, or directly represented in casts of her hands, knees, and elbows…Displaying the conditions of their making, her sculptures ask us to consider how we brush up against the world beyond ourselves.’ (MoMA, 2012).
Esther Kläs,
Maybe it can be different, Room 2, 2019, Installation view
9 aluminium pieces, 4 drawings; dimensions variable
Esther Kläs,
Maybe it can be different, Room 2, 2019, Installation view
9 aluminium pieces, 4 drawings; dimensions variable
Esther Kläs,
Maybe it can be different, Room 2, 2019, Installation view
9 aluminium pieces, 4 drawings; dimensions variable
​This is a condition that swings back and forth between her use of drawing and sculpture as a way of registering the body – to use these methodologies as tools to understand our surroundings. A reminder that ‘thinking does not take place in the mind alone’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 34). Similarly to Richard Tuttle, Kläs achieves that transitory, pre-discursive space of drawing and interweaves that dialogue into sculpture. ‘The language of drawing emerges in her sculpture in…subtle ways…grooves…suggest lines on a page’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 28); she translates the ‘line – the most fundamental element of drawing – into something with literal weight’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 30).
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Esther Kläs’s works exemplify a very clear understanding of the thresholds between drawing and sculpture, how to use them in a parallel dialogue and what they enable and disable in the works, and she uses them distinctly. Her drawings hold a space for the traces of action – of the body that is no longer present – while her sculptures represent that physical quantity of being and presence. Both are autonomous states, ‘her drawings are neither sketches for sculptures nor recorded afterthoughts based on three-dimensional work’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 30), but together, as they are often shown, they oscillate and ‘ultimately pivot around her body’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 30).
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Her installations feature as groupings of large expansive works on paper made from oil bar to totemic sculptures made of materials including metals, concrete, plaster, resin, and pigments. These are malleable materials that embody the gestures and rhythms of their making. Unfortunately, I have not seen any of her works in the flesh. Still, they are described as hand-worked ‘any possibility of a pristine, smooth surface is eschewed for the rough-hewn and undulating, tactile and textured. The making of the work is embedded in the work itself, often appearing in its final manifestation with visible thumbprints of the artist as she worked the surface. And though her often spare constellation of objects may be utterly reduced in appearance, each object appears almost as some kind of energy-charged tool, leftover from an obscure and sacred ritual.’ (Art Viewer, 2020)
Esther Kläs
CHERE: Sculpture, 2015. Installation view
Esther Kläs
CHERE: Sculpture, 2015. Installation view
Kläs is so sensitive to space and direct experience with the utmost precision – the encounter is concentrated, everything is relational, in dialogue with all that is displayed and with the space itself. I especially like that these works can be navigated from every viewpoint, creating encounters not just from floor or wall-based works, but also from above. I love the sculptures which hang, suspended, hovering, wandering airborne as they float above or encircle the territory of other works. I am inspired by this interaction with the airspace of the gallery. It brings a whole new dimension to the works. It also plays on weight/weightlessness, which are very interesting contradictions in material language, especially within blurring sculptural boundaries. I love how it changes the interactions of relational works, where things start radiating. Hence, they explore not just their site and situation but every other element of every other object.
Esther Kläs
ola/wave, 2017. Installation view
Esther Kläs
Better Energy, 2012, Installation view
This activation is carried through to her use of diptychs within her work. ‘Diptych format [has a] capacity to create a psychological space where dualities are implied’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 32). These dualities, in particular, are up/down, heavy/light, solid/empty, flat/curved, lying/standing – all enable a further type of movement. They are sensitive spatial relationships that are not only physical but also poetic and perceptive.
‘Her work invites the viewer to move between the pairs and joined pages, in a visual back and forth that echoes her own movements in space and in the creative act’ (Roberts, V. 2015, p. 32).
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To be critical of Esther Kläs’s work is difficult because there is so much I want to take from her works to influence my own. However, I feel I depart from her in how some of her forms appear. There is this oddity in her mangled metal structures, often made of aluminium and the standing tall totem forms that feel stiff. They make me uncomfortable, and I can’t work out why. Maybe it is because they lack the elegance I like so much that runs throughout the rest of her works. As forms and things themselves, I do not find them elegant.
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The takeaways that I want to find a place for in my practice
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Where paper drawings and 3d objects relate (e.g. in maybe it can be different)
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I love the gaps/holes vs the solid/wholes, these works like 0/6 (rumba) remind me of my nasal holes’ drawings
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And following on from the holes/wholes, how they are suspended, I love this interaction and want to try this out
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Kläs is very aware of the viewer and how the viewer necessarily implicates movement and therefore achieves activation of the work and activation of the body
Kläs’s practice has been described as having ‘a generosity and fearlessness that goes into her work that encourages us to think for ourselves. (Xavier Hufkens, 2022) I believe this is a beautiful ideology to hold within a practice – generosity and fearlessness – I want to bring that into mine.
Esther Kläs
Girare con te, 2014. Installation view
Esther Kläs
da - da/dort, 2016
bronze, graphite, pencil, glue and oil based printing ink on paper
205 x 440 x 170 cm
Esther Kläs
The subtle interplay between the I and the me, 2020 Installation view
Gross, J. Butler, C. Chaffee, C. Roberts, V. & Sullivan, L. (2015) Drawing Redefined, Roni Horn, Esther Klas, Joelle Tuerlinckx, Richard Tuttle and Jorinde Voigtby. Yale University Press
Xavier Hufkens (2022) Esther Kläs (online) Available from: https://www.xavierhufkens.com/artists/esther-klas (accessed 03/02/2022)
Xavier Hufkens (2022) Esther Kläs, ll (elle elle) (long lines) (online) Available from: https://www.xavierhufkens.com/exhibitions/ll-elle-elle-long-lines (accessed 03/02/2022)
Xavier Hufkens (2022) Esther Kläs, HORIZONTE (online) Available from: https://www.xavierhufkens.com/exhibitions/horizonte (accessed 03/02/2022)
Xavier Hufkens (2022) Esther Kläs, CHERE: Sculpture (online) Available from: https://www.xavierhufkens.com/exhibitions/chere-sculpture (accessed 03/02/2022)
Kadel Willborn (2022) Esther Kläs (online) Available from: https://www.kadel-willborn.de/viewingroom/en/home/esther-klaes (accessed 02/06/2022)
MoMA (2012) Esther Kläs – Better Energy (online) Available from: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3751 (accessed 02/06/2022)
Peter Blum Gallery (2022) Esther Kläs: Come again (online) Available from: https://www.peterblumgallery.com/viewing-room/esther-klas (accessed 02/06/2022)
Art Viewer (2020) Esther Kläs at Fondazione Giuliani (online) Available from: https://artviewer.org/esther-klas-at-fondazione-giuliani/ (accessed 02/06/2022)
Museum of Non-Visible Art, Yale University (2022) Esther Kläs (online) Available from: https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/esther-klas/ (accessed 02/06/2022)