Emotional. Rational.

Lechner combined the desire to create and his strong passion with the analysis of geometric form and steel. "No sculptor has ever made such discoveries about the cube, no one has recognized steel with such precision," Manfred Schneckenburger, former director of the Kunsthalle in Cologne and director of the Documenta in Kassel, wrote about Alf Lechner in 1995.

These works describe the sides and diagonals in a cube with individual connected lines and thus become surprising, independent sculptures. Supplemented by photos of the executed works, which can be viewed in the sculpture park in Obereichstätt, the entire development of a Lechner sculpture becomes comprehensible. In another room, the six large-format drawings from 1989, In Schreibrichtung, enter into dialogue with Flächenkonstruktion XXII from 1976, a work from the series of glass and steel sculptures in which a glass pane and a steel frame square stabilize each other, providing insight into Lechner's love of experimentation and drive for exploration. On the first floor, Lechner's exploration of steel as a material can be experienced in three dimensions. Lechner was fascinated by liquid steel. Glowing steel, which is also believed to be at the core of the earth, acts as an archaic element and can evoke strong emotions. The liquid state of steel becomes visible to the visitor with the room installation Bizarre Surfaces. It is the new version, developed by Lechner in three different versions from 2006 to 2016, and is on view for the first time in this form. It represents visually - through its varied surface structures - and formally - through your spellbound firepower - a significant late work of the sculptor, who died in 2017.

Horizontally welded into steel frames, the surfaces seem like an attempt to contain emotions within a rational framework. But in some places, the works break out of the frame. These exciting burn-cut surfaces invite exploration. Complementing the exhibition, Lechner's so-called Emotional Drawings are on display in the Paper House of the Sculpture Park in Obereichstätt. They were created, among other things, by abrasion or in motion against a receding resistance. They are abstract drawings, reminiscent of a flying spark, and impressively convey the intensity and passion of the artist. The exhibition emotional. rational. conveys how Alf Lechner used strong passion, enthusiasm and a love of experimentation with a great deal of analytical ability and planning in such a way that he brought solid steel and geometric forms into impressive artistic harmony.

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