Christina Kruse’s Bauhaus balancing act defies gravity in New York
Bauhaus protagonist Oskar Schlemmer inspired artist Christina Kruse’s solo exhibition of new sculptural work at Helwaser Gallery

An esoteric, strength-testing sports instrument called a Cyr wheel seems an unlikely source of artistic inspiration, but that’s exactly what sparked the imagination of Christina Kruse. The German-born, New York-dwelling artist known for her photography had been buried deep in the work of Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus polymath who turned the human body into geometry in his ballets, dances and theatre.
‘I was looking for ways to build a performance that is based on instinctive movement, creating an instinct-driven situation, that required me to learn technical movements rapidly – which in this case meant heightening the instinct to self-counterbalance,’ Kruse explains. ‘I designed a body suit – an arrangement of geometric shapes that would eventually alter if the instinct didn’t kick in early enough. The outcome of that geometric, alive form interested me: what would it look like if it failed at times, where would the volume of these body shapes be replaced to? It wouldn’t just disappear. And how far could the altered geometric body go on before it would collapse because of self-inflicted volume displacement?’
To grow, 2019, by Christina Kruse, charcoal, pen, and varnish on paper
Kruse shares a natural affinity with the Bauhaus master, integrating design, art, and craft into each of her works, whether in two or three dimensions. She also shares Schlemmer’s ‘absence of colour and little sentiment or emotion’, explaining that to her, ‘there is a beauty in [his] almost rational approach’. Between her studio in Jersey City, shared with a painter friend, and another space upstate, Kruse has spent the last two years creating a new body of wood, bronze and brass sculptures informed by Schlemmer, referencing the lines of human bodies.
Now on view at New York’s Helwaser Gallery until 25 July, her solo exhibition ‘Base and Balance’ presents this sculptural work alongside some of her drawings and sketches – featured, she says, in order to give the interiors of the sculptures their own rightful place. ‘Imagine you are in a circus and then you leave and someone puts a huge blanket over the circus leaving it looking like a big old shape – it’s something around those lines.’ The sculptures are loosely grouped to recall a tableau vivant, reflecting the practices of the Bauhaus. Schlemmer would have been proud.
4/1, 2017, by Christina Kruse, wood, acrylic paint, lacquer, brass, and wax
Exit, 2019, by Christina Kruse, charcoal and pencil on paper
Detached, 2019, by Christina Kruse, wood, bronze, acrylic, paint, wax, and varnish
Collection of miniature models
INFORMATION
‘Christina Kruse: Base and Balance’ is on view until 25 July. For more information, visit the Helwaser Gallery website
ADDRESS
Helwaser Gallery
833 Madison Avenue
New York
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
Love, community, anti-gay laws: the queer African artists redefining visibility through portraits
In honour of Pride Month, Ugonnaora Owoh speaks to three artists on African queer legacies and their optimism in advocating for queer rights through art
-
A beauty lover’s tour of Tokyo: hair, nails, shopping and bathing
Part 2 of our Summer in Tokyo beauty series sees Lara Johnson-Wheeler seeking out the city’s best beauty spots
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth Menorca
US-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
It was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolition
The brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth Somerset
An intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership