Sale: 424 / Modern Art, June 11./13. 2015 in Munich Lot 226

 

226
Ernst Barlach
Kussgruppe I, 1921.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 9,000 / $ 9,720
Sold:
€ 11,250 / $ 12,150

(incl. surcharge)
Kussgruppe I. 1921.
Bronze with brown patina.
Laur 322. Schult 251. With name and foundry mark "H. Noack Berlin" on side. One of together 20 copies, some released posthumously. 17.5 x 17 x 9.7 cm (6.8 x 6.6 x 3.8 in).
Presumably executed in the 1970s/80s after the original gipsum model from 1921: 8 copies were made beetween 1930 and February 1938, twelve casts have been made posthumously since November 1938. Other copies are in possession of, among others, the Museum Ludwig Cologne, the Israel Museum Jerusalem and the Staatliche Museum Schwerin. [KP].

We are grateful to the Ernst Barlach Lizensverwaltung, Ratzeburg, for their kind expert advice.

EXHIBITION: Each different copy:
Ernst Barlach, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin und Düsseldorf 1930, cat. no. 11.
Ernst Barlach, Deutsche Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1951/52, cat. no. 36.

LITERATURE: Bertold Brecht, Notizen zur Barlach Ausstellung, in: Sinn und Form, 4th year, Berlin 1952, issue 1, p. 184.

Motivated by Alfred Flechtheim, Barlach became increasingly occupied with bronze casts, as he had not paid much attention to this material up until the late 1920s. In 1930 the gallery owner and the artist sealed the cooperation with a program that arranged for the execution of 20 casts after models from between 1907 and 1930. These casts were exhibited in the Berlin and Düsseldorf facilities of the Galerie Flechtheim in November/December 1930. Among them the three versions of the "Kussgruppe" made after gypsum models from 1921. The sculpture "Kussgruppe" is a wonderful example of a block-like figure group, in which Barlach lets the observer feel the deep connection between the depicted persons.



226
Ernst Barlach
Kussgruppe I, 1921.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 9,000 / $ 9,720
Sold:
€ 11,250 / $ 12,150

(incl. surcharge)