Industrial and creative processes –

Alfred Rexroth was a foundry engineer and led a large metalworking company with his brother. However, only very few people know that he was also artistic. ‘If casting as art is difficult to learn because it incorporates irrational elements, the cast material itself as an objet d’art is in turn the result of varying forces which influence the artistic idea through the casting method, the flow of metal and the output elements which give the object form. Styrofoam masks are not cut by Rexroth but shaped by a separate tool, mainly involving heated wires.’ (from the exhibition catalogue, Alfred Rexroth Sculptures in the Westfalen-Blatt Art Studio)

These sculptures embody the experimental world of art, while also functioning as a bridge between industrial and creative processes. Both are the basis of the formation of the Bochum banking institutions and thus also that of Neuguss. The experimentation that was introduced and indeed became characteristic corresponded with the challenges, but also the occasional failure of initiatives that was a feature of the period in which Neuguss was formed and which continue to be present today.