Minimalissimo

Milkstones

art & illustration

Stay up to date

The Minimalissimo newsletter is sponsored by aprile, the hanging chair.
It's also supported by Ludovic Leroy and 29 others.
If you enjoy what we’re doing, consider joining this group.

German artist Wolfgang Laib is well known for his sculptures known as Milkstones. These works consist of a block of marble containing very shallow depressions that are filled with milk. The combination and contrast of materials and textures make the tactility of the work quite vivid, even if you haven't (myself included), seen these in person.

As this article by Mark Stevens points out:

Pouring milk on stone took on the sacramental air of ritual; the milk itself evoked intimacy, nurture, purity, and the beauty of first things. It was, as he said, at once “chaste and sensual,” joining milk to marble, soft to hard- the two became inseparable in these works- reflected the Eastern aspiration of harmonizing opposites.

Laib is also well known for his beautiful, and painstaking installations of yellow pollen.

In the shop