Heavenly marble

Sculptor Maria Rucker does not need a study before she begins a work. “I let the stone inspire me, I work with chance and experimentation,” she says about herself.

On the lawn in front of her Munich studio stands a column over two meters high. Rucker calls the work “Feathered Serpent”. It was created in 2015 from Carrara-Bardiglietto. Originally, it was a drill core 17 centimetres in diameter consisting of three parts, i.e. a waste product. Rucker created something new from it and worked the stone with an angle grinder and diamond wheel until feathers and scales appeared on the surface. The surface is now very “soft” due to the heavy polishing. This is also necessary, explains the artist. It allows rainwater to run off easily and prevents dirt from getting caught on the surface.

She later dowelled the three resulting marble pieces together. “Like a piece of music, this work has three movements,” she explains. There is a natural break at the top, so that the viewer can imagine an extension towards the sky.

Maria Rucker visited Carrara with her father – Hans Rucker, also a sculptor – as a young child. “I really grew into my profession,” she says, smiling. She finally completed her training at the Munich Academy. However, it was more in Carrara that she learned the trade from the local stonemasons. In Munich, the professors were more interested in convincing her of the trendy materials of steel, concrete and plastic. But Rucker was not dissuaded from her vision: She remains loyal to marble to this day. Her works can be seen in world-famous museums, such as the Bavarian State Painting Collection in Munich.

Here you can see the sculptures from the last few months: