Weiblicher Torso. Ca. 1939.
Bronze, polished.
Krause 236. Stand with the estate stamp and the embossed number. Posthumous cast from an edition of 99 copies. Height: 24.5 cm (9.6 in).
Made in cooperation wth Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin, in context of the 1988 exhibition on occasion of the artist's 80th birthday.

• Symbiosis of a clear form, sensual materiality and timeless beauty.
• Other copies are at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and the Berlinische Galerie.
• Hartung's objective was not to depict nature but to capture the nature of a figure and to express it in his very own abstract style.
• The symbiosis of figuration and abstraction was also characteristic of Karl Hartung's artistic creation in the post-war era.
• In 1957 Karl Hartung showed his female "Torso" (1950) in the important exhibition "German Art of the Twentieth Century" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

We are grateful to the Karl Hartung Estate for the kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin.
Private collection Southern Germany (acquired from the above).

EXHIBITION: Each a different copy:
Karl Hartung, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin, 1988, cat. no. 15 (with illu.).
Karl Hartung. Die Hamburger Jahre (commemorating the artist's 100th birthday), Handelskammer Hamburg, May 21 - June 27, 2008, p. 29 (with illu.).
Karl Hartung. Aufbruch - Aufbrüche, Kunsthalle Schweinfurt, November 21, 2014 - April 12, 2015, p. 47 (with illu.).
Die Sammlung Osmers. Von Archipenko bis ZERO, Kunsthalle Bremen, December 10, 2022 - March 26, 2023.

LITERATURE: Eberhard Roters (ed.), Berlin 1910-1933. Die visuellen Künste, Berlin 1983, p. 177 (with illu., p. 176).
Markus Krause, Karl Hartung 1908-1967. Metamorphosen von Mensch und Natur (monograph and catalogue raisonné), Munich 1998, p. 205, cat. no. 236 (with illu.).

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