Ernst Fuchs:
Sculpture "The Sphinx with the Golden Helmet - The Miniature", bronze partially gold-plated
Ernst Fuchs:
Sculpture "The Sphinx with the Golden Helmet - The Miniature", bronze partially gold-plated

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limited, 1,999 copies | numbered | signed | bronze + granite | chiselled | polished | patinated | partially gold-plated | size 12 x 11 x 7 cm (h/w/d) | weight 1 kg

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Product no. IN-916503

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Sculpture "The Sphinx with the Golden Helmet - The Miniature", bronze partially gold-plated
Ernst Fuchs: Sculpture "The Sphinx with the Golden Helmet...

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Sculpture "The Sphinx with the Golden Helmet - The Miniature", bronze partially gold-plated

Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015), born in Vienna, was one of the co-founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. His work has had a crucial influence on the understanding of 20th-century art.

Whether the sphinx is a woman or a man depends on the different cultures. The Egyptian sphinx is depicted as a male with a human head and a lion's body. It was a symbol of power and a guardian figure that guarded the way to the temples. The most famous of all such sphinx sculptures is also one of the oldest: the head depicts the pharaoh Khafre (2540-2515 BC).
However, with the Greeks, the sphinx became a female figure. It was up to the art of symbolism to bring this figure back to life. It turned her into a figure of the mysterious Eros.

Ernst Fuchs follows this tradition with his "Sphinx with Gold Helmet". At the same time, he endows his motif, here as in many other works drawing not only from mythological but also from mythical sources, with clearly fantastic features. Fuchs' sphinx thus stands for the world and life mystery par excellence.

Fine bronze sculpture, cast using the Lost-Wax-Process, chiselled, polished and patinated by hand. With gilded helmet. Mounted on a pedestal of black granite. Limited to 1,999 numbered and signed copies. Size 12 x 11 x 7 cm (h/w/d). Weight 1 kg.

About Ernst Fuchs

1930-2015

Ernst Fuchs, born in Vienna in 1930, already presented his works to the public in 1946/47 together with other young artists during his studies at the Vienna Academy. He was one of the co-founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.

This art movement emerged in Vienna around 1945 and deliberately set itself apart from abstract art. In their works, the artists dealt with French Surrealism, the experiences of New Objectivity and metaphysical painting as well as the fantastic elements of Viennese pre-war art. Ernst Fuchs' work has had a decisive influence on our understanding of 20th-century art.

The motifs are complex allegories depicting human afflictions between life and death. Biblical and mythological representations dominate. The motifs of the Old and New Testaments are deliberately enigmatic and visionary in expression. These riddles are meant to bring knowledge and solution to the viewer as well as to the artist.

His engagement with the heterogeneous art traditions led him to his historicism. He mixed the styles, sometimes in a polemical way. In his first book, "Architectura Caelestis: Images of the Hidden Prime of Styles" first published in 1964, he set out his artistic conception.

The imaginative pictorial inventions, often alienated by surreal elements, evoke something mystical and often erotic. Fuchs' entire oeuvre is repeatedly permeated by biblical motifs. They all culminate in the unique book, the Ernst Fuchs Bible.

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