Charles Kohl

Charles Kohl (Rodange, 1929 – Luxembourg, 2016) was a sculptor, painter and lecturer from Luxembourg. His work developed mainly in his native country, where he is regarded as one of the notable figures of Luxembourgish sculpture in the second half of the twentieth century.

Kohl trained in Luxembourg at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers, and then in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1956 he began teaching arts at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers, and later, in the 1970s and 1980s, at the Lycée Technique du Centre. He was awarded the Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe twice, in 1956 and 1962. His early important works were commissions for monuments and sculptures, several of them for churches across the country, such as the marble baptismal font in the parish church in Bonnevoie.

His marble sculpture, often showing veiled forms, and his bronzes were known for fragmentary bodies and faceless heads. From the early sixties, arthritis forced him to give up hard stone, and he concentrated mainly on terracotta and drawing. In his last years macular degeneration greatly reduced his sight, and in 2010 he moved to a home for the blind in Berschbach, yet he continued to draw until shortly before his death. A retrospective at the Villa Vauban in 2020 and 2021, held after his death, brought renewed attention to his work.