Michael Warren

The work

Stele X
1995
193.5 x 31 x 25.5 cm
Elm wood

This is a minimalist and abstract work, although the slight but visible curvature of the lower part gives it an expressive character, reflecting the change produced by the passage of time and the weight of the load to which it is subjected.
The title of Irish artist Michael Warren’s sculpture tells us that he conceived it inspired by the steles of ancient civilizations. Steles were commemorative and religious monuments, more rarely funerary or marking the threshold of land ownership. Monolithic and vertical, they rise from the ground like a tombstone. They often bear engravings or reliefs, symbols, or figures that explain the reason for their placement. In their original meaning, they were made of stone to ensure a long life.

The artist

He works with immense beams of oak, chestnut, and tropical trees, joining them, fitting them together, and arranging them in balance, finding the fulcrum to test the limits of matter. In the 1990s, he created other, more complex sculptures, where wood—often burnt—is confronted with raw industrial materials such as cement or steel.
This work is made of wood, a material he has used regularly since 1978. In the 1970s, Michael Warren had created bronze sculptures with geometric shapes: “I seek to express the material in my sculptures, that same material that constitutes the world and is subject to the tensions of existence and accidents.”