“Männerhaut”

When five men came together in 1991 to share a studio at Frauenau in Bavaria, they looked for a name to reflect them and their work.

An advertising slogan eventually inspired their name-finding efforts: “Men’s skin (Männerhaut) is quite natural, too”, it said in a magazine, and this was precisely what the five intended to express as individuals and artists – working in a group, with no group ideology slipped over them, a shared studio enabling the joint use of machines and a permanent exchange on artistic creation and craftsmanship.

The surprising thing is that glass receded into the background initially, although Frauenau is a historic location and a synonym for this material. Perhaps that was why during the first years of search and experiment, Männerhaut tried to keep their distance from glass and prove that artists in that part of the world, too, could be masters of free painting and sculpture.

It was only after four years of working together that Männerhaut returned to glass, and in 1995 they had their first exhibition at the Frauenau museum of glass. Their studio had meanwhile become too small because the group then had increased to six members and had reconstituted itself with the aim of winning recognition for glass in art, design and handicraft within the region and beyond.

After numerous exhibitions and projects, Männerhaut has become an integral part of the world of glass art. In the Bavarian glass-making centres of Frauenau and Zwiesel, this group of artists has become a real institution.

For the first time, the glass museum “Alter Hof Herding” hosts a Männerhaut exhibition – we are looking forward to the highly individual, poetic, playful and aesthetic creations in glass by “Atschi” Achatz, Ronald Fischer, Michael Gölker, G. Jo Hruschka, Stefan Stangl and Alexander Wallner.

Photos:

Ronald Fischer, Ein Stück Unendlichkeit, 2006 – Photo Ronald Fischer

Josef Achatz, Gipfelstürmer, 2006 – Photo AHH

Michael, Gölker, Ratte, 2003 – Photo AHH

Stefan Stangl, Vier seltsame Herren, 2006 – Photo Horst Kolberg

Alexander Wallner, o.T., 2004 – Photo AHH