Neue Galerie Design Shop To Offer Reproduction of Messerschmidt Sculpture

In conjunction with the Neue Galerie New York's upcoming exhibition, "Franz Xaver Messerschmidt 1736-1783: From Neoclassicism to Expressionism," the museum Design Shop has collaborated with American artist Keith Edmier to produce an exclusive new product: a limited-edition, artist-signed sculpture based on one of the most celebrated pieces by Messerschmidt, Second Beak Head. Measuring close to life size at over 12 inches and weighing nearly ten pounds, the work will be available in the Design Shop for the price of $640.

"As a sculptor, I am always striving to create powerful, compelling objects," said Edmier, "and Messerschmidt's work continues to inspire and resonate with me."

In his early years, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783) enjoyed a distinguished career, including several commissions for the Imperial court and a post at the Academy of Vienna. He produced some of the most significant sculptures of the Enlightenment period. By the early 1770s, a psychological rupture occurred in the artist's life. Suffering from hallucinations and paranoia, Messerschmidt was expelled from teaching at the university and retreated in isolation to his native Bavaria.

From this point forward, Messerschmidt broke with artistic tradition and devoted himself to the creation of "character heads," the extraordinary body of work for which he is best known. One of the most unusual of this series is Second Beak Head, made before 1781 and carved out of alabaster. With its exaggerated features, the sculpture pushes the boundaries of expression well past all traditional norms.

Keith Edmier is a noted contemporary artist based in New York. His sculpture is informed both by his fascination with the themes of personal memory and collective history, and by his experiences working as a science fiction, horror, and fantasy special effects artist in 1980s Hollywood. Edmier's first exposure to the character heads was during this period: he recalls seeing examples of Messerschmidt's work pinned to a wall in the studio. "Messerschmidt's work was so in tune with what we were trying to achieve," says Edmier, "and felt so contemporary that I couldn't believe it was made in the eighteenth century."

Edmier would go on to become a celebrated artist, exhibiting at institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Modern. A few years ago, when Edmier encountered a cast of Second Beak Head, he immediately remembered the influential role Messerschmidt played in his past. This inspired Edmier to create his own sculpture based on the head. While preserving the shape of the original, Edmier transforms the work by replicating it in hand-polished translucent polyurethane resin, a material that has always been at the core of his sculptural production.