Noack

The Cradle of Bronze Bildgießerei Noack’s history begins in 1897, in a basement in Berlin-Wilmersdorf: when the company’s young founder, Hermann Noack, isn’t busy dragging his unconscious assistants up the steep stairs—the liquid bronze can reach temperatures of more than 1800 °F, and the workshop is unventilated—he discusses projects with the up-and-coming young sculptors August Gaul and Fritz Klimsch and introduces them to the finer technical aspects of their craft. The name Noack quickly comes to stand for what, to artist, is the promised land: a place where art and workmanship, far from being separate domains of expertise, are fused in the accomplished work of art. 125 years later, the company is still led by a Hermann Noack, the fourth in a line of patriarchs, and the most illustrious names in art still approach the art foundry with their designs. Anselm Kiefer, Alicja Kwade, Georg Baselitz, and Tony Cragg have their monumental visions realized here; the international arts scene flocks to the foundry to cast ideas into reality. Published on occasion of the anniversary, the volume retraces the art foundry’s august history: how the steadfast belief in art helped preserve a continuity of creation amid the dramatic upheavals of history, and how, across four political systems, through two world wars, and despite the incessant churn of social change and artistic transformations, Bildgießerei Noack has been unwavering in its dedication to one thing that matters—the work of art.