Wolfgang Laib (born 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, (Germany) is a German artist, predominantly known as a sculptor. He lives and works in a small village in southern Germany, maintaining studios in New York and South India.  His work has been exhibited worldwide in many of the most important galleries and museums. He represented Germany in the 1982 Venice Biennale and was included with his works in the Documenta 7 in 1982 and then in the Documenta 8 in 1987. In 2015 he received the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture in Tokyo, Japan.  He became worldknown for his "Milkstones", a pure geometry of white marble made complete with milk, as well as his vibrant installations of pollen. In 2013 The Museum of Modern Art in New York City presented his largest pollen piece – 7 m x 8 m – in the central atrium of the museum. Wolfgang Laib was born 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, Germany, the son of a medical doctor Gustav Laib and his wife Lydia. In 1962 the family moved to a small village near to Biberach an der Riss, There his father had built a contemporary glass house of extreme and unique architecture set in a surroundings of meadows and forests. The life which developed there had a strong and remarkable impact on all the members of the family.    Jakob Braeckle, a landscape painter of the region, becomes a close friend of the Laibs and conveys his deep respect and love for art. Through him the Laibs became personally acquainted with the paintings by Kazimir Malevich which were stored in Biberach by the architect Hugo Haering, having been later acquired by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Through this friendship Laib became acquainted already in his early childhood with eastern culture and philosophies, together developing a very strong interest, especially in Lao-tse, Taoism and Zen Buddhism.    

 

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