Hans Panschar embodies Sehnsucht in works such as placing a mountain on a small sled. His art is about unfulfillable longing for the unreachable, the impossible. This German wood artist is not internationally famous, but he has a highly recognizable style and thematic approach.
Hans Panschar placed a mountain on a small sled, with blackened, charred peaks.
Hans Panschar (1962, Munich) is a German sculptor for whom craftsmanship has always been central. After training as a wooden boat builder and later becoming a master joiner, he began traveling in the mid-1980s.
He worked as a captain and windsurfer in Italy and along other Mediterranean coasts. These early years later resurfaced in his work as a combination of a desire for mobility and a rooting in material. This guiding motif runs to the extreme throughout his oeuvre, producing surreal imagery.
Away, far from here
“Get away, far from here,” he seems to think, whether on roller skates, a boat, wheels, or ski poles. It does not matter to Panschar how. The heaviest blocks of wood, sometimes locked together with even heavier concrete, must be moved elsewhere. Desire and nostalgia merge into unique and instantly recognizable objects.
In 1995, Panschar settled permanently in Berg am Starnberger See, near Munich. He established a studio and workshop there and continued to develop his practice. Over the following years, he became known for sculptures and objects that translate human experiences and life questions into poetic forms. People themselves are absent from the works, but the things they create are present, from ladders and forks to food items.
Downhill Sculpture, another work by Panschar in oak, in which he seeks to move mountains.
Panschar’s approach is both anecdotal and investigative. In series and installations, he uses a rough chainsaw to carve house-like structures. They evoke Italian villages, so densely built that they barely fit on a mountain plateau. The houses tilt precariously over the mountainside.
In his project Starnberger Vorratsschrank, he filled an old museum display case with wooden and concrete objects of cheese, bread, meat, and fish. It evokes childhood memories and traditions, a poetic record of what it means to live, eat, and feel at home.
Hans Panschar embodies Sehnsucht
Although Panschar has not built an international museum career, his work is regularly included in regional museum exhibitions and gallery presentations, especially in southern Germany. Recently, he received the Cultural Prize of the Landkreis Starnberg in the category of sculpture.
Ski Lodge, even here the antique ski poles signal: away from here.
Critics and fellow artists praise Panschar for his ability to transform ordinary forms into artistic metaphors. What at first glance seems simple—a chair, a mountain, or a spoon—reveals upon closer inspection a sense of humanity. The quiet of craftsmanship, the nostalgia of memory, the desire to travel, and the complexity of our relationship with objects all come to the fore.
His work aligns with broader contemporary sculptural practices, yet Panschar retains his own voice: melancholic. Sehnsucht, as the Germans themselves would say; an intense, often painful and unfulfillable longing for the unreachable, the impossible.
Jan Bom, 11 February 2026
