Catalogue raisonné: Krause 198

Provenance:

The artist’s estate

Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (1960s/1970s)

Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia

Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (by descent)

This very concise sculpture dates from one of the sculptor’s most striking creative phases: it is one of the few figures that was created in absolute opposition to the prevailing doctrine of National Socialist aesthetics and could even be saved. It was realised under extreme conditions and in the strictest secrecy. Karl Hartung even had to hide it in his Berlin studio during regular inspections. The degree of abstraction must be categorised as “dangerously high” in view of the period in which it was created, when any hint of abstract representation was banned and declared “degenerate art”. This work symbolises a milestone in Hartung’s very early and courageous departure from naturalistic and realistic sculpture in Germany in the 1930s. “A certain independence could only be maintained if a clear line was drawn between production for the public and the actual artistic work.” (Markus Krause, WVZ p. 67)

This piece definitely belonged to the actual artistic work of the time and was “not made for sandwiches” (an expression by Karl Hartung, quote). “Hartung’s sculptural works thus thematise a reality of life that represents a counter-world to external reality. They claim a free space for themselves that eludes all social and political appropriation. In this respect, they also indirectly represent a protest against the living conditions under National Socialism. With his sculptures, Hartung rejected the official value system in a fundamental and radical way. The image of man expressed in his figurative works is completely absorbed in a universal, metaphysical view of the world, which conjures up a wholeness that is largely ignored in everyday life. A visually visualised reconnection that Hartung understood not as regression but as a positive dissolution of boundaries.” (Markus Krause, WVZ p. 72)

The discovery of this sculpture could have cost Hartung everything at the time and thus became a symbol of his inner rebellion and his crossing of artistic boundaries.

Anna Hartung