Ernst Barlach:
Wall object "Head of the Güstrow Memorial", reduction in bronze
Ernst Barlach:
Wall object "Head of the Güstrow Memorial", reduction in bronze

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ars mundi Exclusive Edition | limited, 980 copies | numbered | signature | foundry hallmark | certificate | bronze | reduction | size 22.5 x 24 x 15 cm (w/h/d) | weight 4.5 kg | wall hanging

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Wall object "Head of the Güstrow Memorial", reduction in bronze
Ernst Barlach: Wall object "Head of the Güstrow Memorial"...

Detailed description

Wall object "Head of the Güstrow Memorial", reduction in bronze

Memorial and expression of friendship: "The Floating"

One of Ernst Barlach's most famous works, "The Floating", was created as a war monument for the victims of the First World War and hung from 1927-1937 in a niche of Güstrow Cathedral. However, it is also a memorial to friendship in two ways: as a complete sculpture (Catalogue raisonné 425) and as a detailed cast "Head of the Güstrow Memorial" (Catalogue raisonné 426).

The fact that the complete sculpture still exists is thanks to Barlach's friends. Shortly after the artist died in 1938, they had another cast made based on the existing model and hid, it because the original "The Floating" was classified as "degenerate" by the Nazi authorities in 1937 and removed from the cathedral and even melted down. Today it hangs in the church Antoniterkirche in Cologne and can be used to make other castings for its original location. That is how Barlach's masterpiece returned to the Güstrow Cathedral in 1953 and has been there ever since. The dates engraved in stone serve as a reminder of the victims of the world wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-45.

The "Head of the Güstrow Memorial", Barlach's detailed casting from 1930, is also a document of an immediate artist friendship. The facial features are those of his artist friend Käthe Kollwitz, although "without intention", as he later maintains. Her work was also ostracised in National Socialist Germany, and in 1936, they were removed from the Berlin Academy Exhibition. From then on, she was practically no longer present as an artist. Thus, in retrospect, the "Head of the Güstrow Memorial" seems like a foreshadowing of a community of fate: it is the portrait of an artist whom Barlach admired with friendship and who, like himself, soon faced hard times.

The special features of this edition:
Made of fine bronze, cast by hand using the Lost-Wax-Process. Directly moulded from the original and reduced in size. Limited to 980 copies, individually numbered, with foundry hallmark. ars mundi Exclusive Edition, published in cooperation with the Ernst Barlach Society. With numbered certificate of authenticity and limitation.

Version as wall object. Detail casting of the "The Floating" (catalogue raisonné 424, 1927), was first executed in 1930 (catalogue raisonné 426). With wall suspension.

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Portrait of the artist Ernst Barlach

About Ernst Barlach

1870-1938, sculptor, writer and draughtsman

Ernst Barlach was born on January 2, 1870, in Wedel, Germany, and died on October 24, 1938, in Rostock, Germany. He holds an outstandingly special position within German Expressionism. As a graphic artist, draughtsman, writer and, in particular, a sculptor, Barlach created milestones in art history. Barlach's sculptural works of art have a special effect because they seek extreme experience of limits and their representation. They are works of multi-layered meaning with which he foregrounded the essence of the human being and that what stands above the self and the world.

Barlach's intention is rooted in the depths, the inner self. Shaped by war and challenging living conditions, he experiences both suffering and happiness. The human being is always the focus of his work: Ecce homo.

"I desire nothing more than to be a good and true artist as best I can. I believe that what cannot be expressed through the work can pass into the possession of another through forms. My pleasure and creative impulse continually revolve around the problems of the meaning of life and the other great mountains in the spiritual realm." (Ernst Barlach)

Ernst Barlach became an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, in 1925. In 1933, he was appointed Knight of the Peace Class of the Order "Pour le mérite". In 1937, the National Socialists removed his works from public collections and spaces for being "degenerate art". Ernst Barlach died in Rostock on October 24, 1938.

Today, Ernst Barlach's works are an integral part of leading museums and collections and - if available - fetch record amounts at auction.

"The Singing Man" became Ernst Barlach's best-known sculpture, an icon of Modernism. It adorns illustrated books and posters worldwide, and the original edition is a permanent part of the collections of the world's major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

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