Ernst Aklin born in 1944 in Zug (Switzerland). Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Milano,
School of Fine Arts of Lucerne, Switzerland and training under various sculptors.
1974 National Swiss Fine Arts prize winner.
1976 Biennale di Venezia exposition.
1974-1987 Professor of plastic arts in Zurich.
1985-1986 One year in Mauritius
Since 1987 lives and works in the south of France.
Since 1966 exhibitions in Switzerland, in France and in Italy.

SCULPTOR ERNST AKLIN'S
OWN PRIVATE GYNOECIUM

At first there are women's names, then women named by colours, hybrid women, women as hens with necks topped by scarlet crests, bird-women perched on long legs sheathed in blue tights; ball-shaped women, pink or yellow, created for silence and peaceful parks. They are joined by nymphs with corseted busts, odalisques of the beach or prostrate figures lost in thought. Elated by the power of their profusion of flesh they are knotted, broken up, truncated and cracked, lustful in their lithe abandon. As Maillol was gazing out to sea one day, one of his pupils asked him: "What are you thinking about, master? Infinity? Eternity?" - "Just a woman's ass" replied the aged sculptor. Ernst Aklin undoubtedly has much the same daydream. His work is haunted by the temptation offered by the perfect pair of buttocks. Whether it is virginal or nubile, voluptuous or Bacchic, nothing seems able to divert him from this obsession.

Aklin's art overflows with voracious energy. We can see him beginning to model his subject, initially with some concern for academism, which, little by little, abandons reality as he transforms it through a method of controlled hypertrophy. He reshapes and condenses the bodies, the contours are refined and remodelled. He likes to play with the texture of polyester, giving it artificial colours that are reminiscent of Pop Art. The flesh of his subjects has the rosy hue of gum ointment. Whether he uses multicoloured wood or painted bronze, everything he shapes is subjected to colour, which proves to be an essential dynamic force. Aklin thrives on strong, clear-cut contrasts, not hesitating to clothe his statues in saffron yellow or turquoise blue bathing suits. From the way in which he kneads both clay and plaster, we can feel the rotation of the wrist that creates the curves, the fullness and harmony of the volumes, followed by the pressure of the thumbs that mould an arrogant, well-made nipple. Thus, the skin, which has become bronze, retains all the marks caused by the rhythm of Aklin's work in its grained, uneven texture.

Sculpture has the power to immediately arouse our emotions, by the strength which it communicates to us. Long before the conscious mind reacts, the hand reaches out to caress it, quivering. The physical action always prevails over the intellect. Go ahead. You can touch.

Jean-Pierre Cramoisan