Joachim Schmettau (born 5 February 1937, Bad Doberan, Mecklenburg) is a German sculptor.
Life
Schmettau has been living in Berlin since 1945. From 1956 to 1960, he studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he graduated as a student of Ludwig Gabriel Schrieber [de] in 1961. From 1966 to 1990, he participated as a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund at a total of 18 large annual DKB exhibitions.[1] He was a founding member of the Gruppe Aspekt of the Berlin Critical Realists in 1972.
From 1971 to 2002, Schmettau was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, where Beate Schroedl-Baurmeister was one of his pupils.[2]
His first works were in sandstone as well as in plaster and stucco. In the 1960s, he began to combine various materials (bronze, glass) and smoothing the surface extremely. Figurative and geometrical elements were also combined, so that the work as a whole appears to have an intensified stylization.
His works for the public space (façade reliefs, fountains, and so on) is also extensive. His best-known work is the 1984 "Erdkugelbrunnen" on the Breitscheidplatz in Charlottenburg, also called the "Weltkugelbrunnen" or the "Wasserklops".
Public projects (selection)
1975 Bronze sculpture Hand mit Uhr, Berlin-Hansaviertel
2007 Joachim Schmettau - Skulpturen und Architekturmodelle, Galerie der Kunststiftung Poll, Berlin (ISBN978-3-931759-21-6)
Exhibitions at home and abroad (selection)
1963 XIII. Jahresausstellung, Neuer Darmstädter Sezession
1964 13. Ausstellung des Deutschen Künstlerbund, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Hochschule für bildende Künste und Haus am Waldsee (ebenfalls in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974,1976, 1978, 1979, 1981 und 1986)
Bundeskunstsammlung, Collection of Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany
Städtische Museen Heilbronn
Literature
Lothar C. Poll (Hrsg.): Joachim Schmettau : Zeichnungen 1967-1981, ein Alphabet. (Werkübersicht aus Anlass der Ausstellung der Zeichnungen von Joachim Schmettau in der Galerie Poll im April 1982). Galerie Poll, Berlin 1982, ISBN978-3-931759-05-6 (Poll-Editionen. Bd. 1).
Joachim Schmettau: Skulpturen. Stock-und-Stein-Verlag, Schwerin [2000].
Joachim Schmettau: Zeichnungen. Stock-und-Stein-Verlag, Schwerin [2000]
Joachim Schmettau: Skulpturen 2003–2010. Nicolai-Verlag, Berlin [2011]. ISBN978-3-89479-659-4
Joachim Schmettau: Architekturphantasien. Nicolai-Verlag, Berlin [2015]. ISBN978-3-89479-939-7