Charles Kohl - Conference with Nathalie Becker

The painful experience of going through adolescence in the middle of World war II and the death of his older brother Toni, not long after coming back from deportation probably are the starting point of Charles Kohl's interest for warrior figures who mirror the absurdity of war and the agony of human condition.

While working on the bas-relief of the museum of resistance in Esch-sur-Alzette, Kohl already sets this martial theme into stone, which rewards him with the Grand-Duc Adolphe price for his “Guerrier blessé” with his body pierced by an arrow. This recurrent subject in Kohl's artwork is featured most prominently in his drawings and paintings in the middle of the 80s.