I got familiar with Wolfgang Laib's work in Art College. We were given an assignment to design a poster for an exhibition of his work. I went to Museum de Pont and was immediately infatuated with his work.
His work may be grouped with Land Art and he shows influences of Minimalism. He employs natural materials, such as beeswax and rice. Most notable is his use of large quantities of intense, yellow pollen that he collects by hand, then spreads over large areas of floor or piles to conical heaps. He also became famous for his so-called 'milk stones': big blocks of marble into which very shallow depressions are sanded, then filled with milk. Laib performs the first act of pouring the milk when the piece is displayed, but after this initial gesture, the collector or museum staff must clean and refill the stone each day it is on view.
Ritual plays a central role in all of Laib's highly reductive art. He lives in a remote region of Germany's Black Forest. During the spring and summer months he collects pollen, including dandelion, hazelnut, pine, buttercup, and moss varieties, from the fields surrounding his home. He displays this laboriously gathered material in simple glass jars or sifts it through sheets of muslin directly onto the floor to create large, square fields of spectacular color.
