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Light, clarity, ice and granite are features of the Bavarian Alps where Johannes von Stumm grew up. Memories of that environment are embedded in his consciousness, and are brought to bear, without artifice, on his sculpture. But there is a further, important aspect to consider—his intense feeling for humanity. When the human figure features in his work, it is emblematic, never absolutely figurative. Von Stumm treads confidently a path that Henry Moore established. Of course his sculpture is unlike Moore's, but Moore's belief that a sculptor does not have to bear allegiance to one single way of working—figurative or abstract—caught von Stumm's imagination, and assisted his thinking significantly.

Von Stumm’s art education was academic. He studied at the Akademie der Kunste in Munich, graduating in 1988, after completing the first parts of degree in law and politics at Munich University. He worked as a stonemason, and participated annually in sculpture summer schools in Bavaria. At that time, working as a painter, he mixed both glass and metals into his paintings, and learnt to blow glass. However it was after spending time in Italy during the early 1990s, that his work began to develop in full three dimensions in glass, steel and stone—these materials, together with bronze, were to become his hallmark.

Today, having lived in Britain for some twelve years, making his living as a sculptor in Oxfordshire, von Stumm's sculpture is assured. Using the once liquid mediums of glass, steel and granite (an igneous rock formed by cooling packets of magma trapped beneath the earth’s surface) he achieves compositions that unite vastly differing qualities of density, light and texture. The glass elements are blown into pre-constructed moulds, the steel fabricated, the granite carved, and it is these combinations of diverse materials, each demanding to be treated differently, that give his sculptures their vigour.

Ann Elliott

I first saw Johannes’s work at the Danny Katz Gallery, where he was showing as part of a group show featuring artists who work in glass; both Danny and I are best known for our eye for figurative work, so it is a strange co-incidence that this contemporary mixed media artist should appeal so immediately to us both. For my part the initial impact of the mixed media works is the contrast in the materials, how they react against and with each other. Light and dark, rough and smooth, light and heavy, dense and transparent each material is simple on its own, but combined they radiate an emotive message.

The second time I saw Johannes’s work was when I went to see his studio. Set in rural countryside there is an honesty in his workshop, the flying sparks of welding torches and grinding tools, combined with glass molds, wooden work benches and blocks of granite, enclosed by wooden framed buildings more akin to a blacksmith than a sculptor. It is here that you find another dimension to Johannes's work, the intrinsic artisan quality, sculpture with design, architecture and craftsmanship combined to make works of art. It is with this in mind that the pieces have been photographed by Julian in and around the artist's studio, demonstrating how these objects are equally at home in contemporary and classic interiors.

Robert Bowman