Since 2011, Galerie Fred Jahn has worked directly with the estate of the German sculptor Michael Croissant. Galerie Jahn und Jahn was established in spring 2017 and since then the artist has been jointly represented. Born in 1928 in Landau in the Palatinate region of Germany, Croissant later spent a large part of his life in the Bavarian capital of Munich, where he died in 2002.
Before Croissant arrived at his typical, geometrically reduced formal language in the mid-seventies, he was ostensibly influenced by Art Informel. Even though this term presents a problematic categorisation of his earlier sculptural works, which were often based on forms from nature transformed into amorphous structures, a better description of his style in this period refuses to be found.
Thematically, the artist devoted this ‘informel’ phase from the fifties until the early seventies to forms from nature and the human figure in the widest sense, sometimes against the backdrop of mythology, such as in the works on Ganymede and Laocoön. Croissant’s depictions of insects, sea creatures and animal skulls represent another important set of themes. Cast in bronze, surfaces extremely rugged, matte, and dark; they reveal their specific, raw materiality. Furrowed outer skin and the ability to see them from all angles advance the secret of their effect through the play between light and shadow.
The artist achieves similar results in his drawings, where expressive hatching marks – often done with graphite – are condensed into contrasting frameworks. Light and shadow, content and void, reduction and abundance are only some of the terms Croissant uses to explore the possibilities of creating a tense balance between formal reduction and spiritual agglomeration.
From the 1970s on, Michael Croissant’s style changed radically in so much as he began concentrating on the most essential manifestations of the body, representing it using a repertoire of geometric forms. Any unevenness that had previously produced a play of shadows and drawn focus was eliminated. Surfaces are smooth, only interrupted by welding marks in the bronze sculptures, or by the juxtaposition of individual elements. With this forced arrangement, the artist counteracts abstraction, so that these individual elements are legible as parts of the body. In his collages and works on paper, made parallel to his sculptural works, he approached this through drawing and produced a comprehensive oeuvre. In order to show the close relationship between his works on paper and the sculptural pieces, he often chose to display them together in exhibitions.
Vita
1928
Michael Croissant is born on 7th Mai in Landau in der Pfalz
1942
Begins an apprenticeship as mason
1943—1945
Attends the Schule des deutschen Kunsthandwerks (School of German Craftsmanship) in Kaiserslautern
1946—1948
Attends a private school of arts in Munich
1948—1953
Studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, Munich
1955
Fellowship of the Kulturkreis im Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie
1962
Receives the art award of the city of Darmstadt
1964
Art Award of the cultural department of the City of Munich
1966
Receives the Hans Purrmann Award
1966—1988
Michael Croissant teaches as a professor at the Städel School in Frankfurt am Main
1972
He becomes a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste in Munich
He is also member of the Darmstadt Secession
1978
Receives the art prize of the state Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
1993
He is awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (1st Class Federal Cross)
2002
Michael Croissant dies on 21st September in Munich
Selected Solo Shows
2021
Skulpturen und Zeichnungen – Jahn und Jahn, Munich
2018
Skulpturen und Zeichnungen – Galerie Maier, Innsbruck
2015
Michael Croissant. Frühe Bronzen und Zeichnungen – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
Galerie Maier, Innsbruck
2013
Michael Croissant. Arbeiten auf Papier und Skulpturen – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
2012
Michael Croissant. Arbeiten auf Papier der 1960er und 1970er Jahre – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (in our space in Residenzstraße 1)
2011
Michael Croissant. Zeichnung und Plastik – Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen, Passau
Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Galerie Ohse, Bremen
2009
Galerie Rothe, Frankfurt am Main
Karl & Faber, Munich, in cooperation with Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
2006
Michael Croissant. Skulpturen und Zeichnungen aus dem bisher nicht gezeigten Nachlaß des Künstlers – Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne
Michael Croissant. Skulpturen, Collagen und Zeichnungen – Galerie Koch, Hanover
2005
Michael Croissant. Köpfe 1950–2002 – Museum Lothar Fischer, Neumarkt i. d. OPf.
2004
Rathausgalerie, Munich
Galerie Meyer-Ellinger, Frankfurt am Main
Michael Croissant. Skulpturen – Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne
Galerie Ohse, Bremen
2003
Michael Croissant (1928–2002) – Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin
2002
Galerie Appel, Frankfurt am Main
Michael Croissant. Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Collagen – Galerie Biedermann, Munich
2001
Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern
2000
Im Dialog I - Michael Croissant – Darmstädter Stadtkirche
1996
Michael Croissant. Skulpturen – Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne
Galerie Valentin, Stuttgart
1995
Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
1994
Michael Croissant. Skulpturen – Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne
1991
Kunstverein München, Munich
Galerie Ohse, Bremen
1990
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main
Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern
Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten, Marl
Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern
1988
Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Maramatsu Gallery, Tokyo
Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin
Galerie Rothe, Heidelberg
1984
Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Galerie Wentzel, Cologne
1982
Galerie Ohse, Bremen
Michael Croissant. Plastiken und Zeichnungen – Kunstverein Bremerhaven
Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
1979
Galerie Biedermann, Munich
1978
Landesmuseum Kassel, Neue Galerie, Kassel
1977
Galerie Marion Grcic-Ziersch, Wuppertal
Galerie Rothe, Heidelberg
1974
Galerie Günther Franke, Munich
1972
Städtisches Museum Simeonstift, Trier
1965
Galerie Appel und Fertsch, Frankfurt am Main
1964
Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt
1963
Galerie Günther Franke, Munich